General Constitution of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 225 Disaster Relief
Within the imperial prison.

Ning Jue, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng were also changed into prison uniforms by Jin Yiwei.

The Jin Yiwei guarding the prison looked at Ning Jue with some doubts and asked, "Ning Bingxian? No, it's called Qian Xian now."

"Don't worry about it, I'll move my head tomorrow."

The jailer looked at Ning Jue with a confused look on his face and asked, "What's the reason this time? Doesn't the Crown Prince think highly of you?"

"I kicked the emperor twice."

The jailer remained silent, walked to the gate and sat down again.

Not long after, Lu Bing walked into the prison with bitterness and hatred.

Gao Gong immediately stood up and asked, "Captain Lu, what happened to the earthquake? Has the court investigated it clearly?"

Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong saw the situation that night clearly.

The southwest of the capital seems to be falling apart.

This earthquake was anything but ordinary.

After hesitating for a long time, Lu Bing finally said: "The cabinet estimates that the number of casualties will be over one million."

Even though Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng had made enough mental preparations, they couldn't help but froze in place.

"How is the imperial court going to respond?"

Lu Bing raised his head and looked at the two people in front of him with a wry smile, "Do you two think the imperial court has the spare capacity to deal with it?"

"It's nothing more than taking a few years off from work to pay for food, paying homage to the mountains and rivers, and then leaving it to fend for itself."

"This means that the southeast is too noisy, and the court can't even close its eyes."

Immediately there was a dead silence in the prison.

Lu Bing sighed, sat in the corner and drank some wine.

"Millions of living people, not just millions." Gao Gong sat slumped on the ground, mumbling incessantly.

"I'm afraid there will be no manpower to bury the corpses in the Northwest. There will be a great epidemic in the spring of next year." Zhang Juzheng said with a frown.

In this era, such a shock is basically equivalent to a shock back to the Stone Age. Without three generations, the Northwest will not be able to recover.

Even Ning Jue didn't come back to her senses for a long time.

Human life is always the biggest thing.

After all, it is a million lives.

After weighing for a long time, Ning Jue looked at Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong and said, "I have a solution."

Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong looked up at Ning Jue almost at the same time.
-
It was quiet in Wuyi Hall.

The core contradiction is right in front of us. The victims need food, but the court has no food.

Jiajing, who was sitting on the dragon chair, let out a long sigh.

"Is it feasible to recruit provinces that have never been affected by disasters?"

Xu Jie lowered his head and said: "Your Majesty, at present, the two provinces of Gyeonggi and Shandong in the north of the Yangtze River still have spare strength. The south of the Yangtze River... should not be able to adjust grains this season. We can only go south to raise grains from Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Annan."

"Guangdong's time is not counted as raising money. It will take five months to travel by sea alone, and it will not be able to quench the near-thirst."

After calculating the accounts in Xu Jie's hand, there is only one conclusion.

When the court raises enough food, there is no need to provide relief for this disaster.

"Then I will first promulgate this crime to myself. All parties are guilty, and the crime lies in my ears. Huang Jin will first order the palace supervisor to clean up the Huanqiu, and choose another commissioner to go to the northwest to sacrifice mountains, rivers and rivers..."

Before Jiajing could finish speaking, Yan Song and Xu Jie knelt down in front of Jiajing.

Jiajing who got up was stunned in place.

Yan Song gritted his teeth and lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, this natural disaster is not your fault."

"Your Majesty, the living and the people are hanging upside down, the emperor has sinned against himself, and the people have no rations to survive this test." Xu Jie also echoed.

Jiajing was stunned at first, and then he couldn't help feeling a little sullen in his heart.

"The two old elders saw it, I think so? If the Golden Palace is demolished, will my people have rice to live on?"

"Your servant will die." Although Yan Song and Xu Jie had no countermeasures, they kowtowed to the ground.

The emperor wanted to sin against himself, but his courtiers tried to persuade him to stop it, and it seemed that the emperor and his ministers were in harmony.

In fact, the two cabinet members have already made up their minds to continue implementing the new law.

Until this time, Jiajing's figure could not help but tremble slightly. Although he had expected that the foreign court would take the opportunity to make trouble, Jiajing did not expect Yan Song and Xu Jie to choose to force the palace so simply.

"There is no way, so why are you still stopping me?!"

"Huang Jin, prepare to sin against yourself! Go!"

Huang Jin hurriedly sang.

Don't wait for Huang Jin to walk out of Wuyi Hall.

Lu Bing quickly walked into the hall.

"Your Majesty, my minister Lu Bing has played."

Jiajing put away his anger for a moment, and then asked, "What's the matter?"

Only then did Lu Bing raise his head to look at Jiajing and said, "Ning Jue, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng have joined forces in the prison to help the disaster victims in the northwest."

Everyone in Wuyi Hall looked at each other, and finally all eyes focused on Jiajing again.

After hesitating for a moment, Jiajing spoke.

"Call three people into the palace."

"Here."

Not long after, the three men in prison uniforms were brought into Wuyi Hall by Lu Bing.

As soon as he saw Ning Jue's face, Jiajing closed his eyes angrily.

"There is something to say, there is fart."

"Three gentlemen, the victims of the disaster can't wait. Please tell me how to solve the problem quickly." Zhu Zaihen said to smooth things over.

"The guilty minister takes orders." Zhang Juzheng cupped his hands, and then continued to introduce: "His Royal Highness, the court does not have food, the court does have food, at least there is food to help the victims get through this test."

"Just tell me where the food comes from." Jiajing's tone was a little impatient.

"From the mouth of the people."

Xu Jie frowned and said, "Uncle, the food from Jilu is not enough to transport, and the food from Guangdong and Guangxi is too far away. Where does your food come from?"

"Mr. Xu Ge and Mr. Yan Ge, although the grain from Guangdong and Guangxi is far away, it only takes more than ten days to transfer grain from Guangdong and Guangxi to Huguang South Road."

Everyone in the hall couldn't help but be startled.

"Eunuch Huang, bring the secondary map." Zhu Zaixun raised his head and ordered.

Not long after, everyone gathered around a huge map.

Holding a bamboo pole in his hand, Zhang Juzheng pointed out on the map: "If there is a disaster in the south of Shanxi, the grain from northern Shanxi will be sent south. If there is a disaster in northern Henan, all the grain from southern Henan will be sent north. Send grain to northern Shanxi and southern Henan."

"After the water transportation is smooth, we will collect grain from the southeast and go north to fill the two provinces of Gyeonggi and Shandong."

"Then we will collect grain from Guangdong, Guangxi, and Annan provinces and go north."

"In this way, the people in each county actually just lent their own rations for the whole year for more than ten days."

Jiajing frowned and said, "What do the people in Annan, Guangdong and Guangxi eat?"

"Your Majesty, this strategy is not to adjust grain, but to seize from the sky, first go north and then go south. By the time the grain is requisitioned to Guangdong and Guangxi, the affected provinces have already recovered, and the northern provinces have already cooked the grain. As long as there is time, it is necessary to move it." , the food in Guangdong and Guangxi is not enough, and we need to move it from the north.”

The key to this plan is not food, but time. The disaster relief is completed when the food is mobilized.

When it was necessary to requisition food from Guangdong and Guangxi, the famine in the northwest had already been relieved, and there was room for the disaster in the northwest to be digested slowly.

Yan Song frowned and said, "Is there enough food in southern Henan and northern Shanxi?"

"Enough! As long as the people in southern Henan and northern Shanxi can save the food for the next season, it is definitely enough to supply the disaster-stricken areas for one or two months. As long as there is time, the court will have time to do things."

As soon as Gao Gong finished speaking, Jiajing and the others looked at Gao Gong as if they were mentally ill.

Borrowing and repaying are called borrowing.

If there is a loan but no repayment, it is called donation.

Before the food really returned to their hands, no one knew whether it was a loan or a donation.

The common people are not slaves either, the imperial court can throw out their own rice bowls with empty words, it is a ghost to borrow so much food from the common people and gentry without bringing 10,000+ soldiers and horses.

Until this time, Ning Jue said indifferently: "Let the merchant borrow it."

"Shan merchants, Qi merchants, and Hui merchants, small merchants go to gentry and common people to collect grain. They are all from their hometowns. As long as the interest and the date of repayment of the grain are negotiated, the rest is easy to talk about. In the end, the small merchants are integrated into the large ones. In the hands of merchants, they will be dispatched in turn."

"In the end, the imperial court only needs to pay these big merchants."

If the Heavenly King Laozi owes you money, if you really don’t pay it back, you have nothing to do with the Heavenly King Laozi.

But if it is the owner of the tailor shop downstairs who owes you money, at least you can risk your life to sue him.

There is an essential difference between the two in terms of reputation.

It was passed on layer by layer, and finally those wealthy merchants asked the court for money to pay the bill, and finally the court re-apportioned the cost to everyone in the world through taxation.

The last problem was solved, and finally everyone's eyes were on Jiajing again.

After a long time, Jiajing slowly opened his mouth and said, "Can the imperial court pay so much money?"

"I can't take it out." Yan Song and Xu Jie said in unison.

"Is it possible to drag it off?"

Yan Song and Xu Jie stopped talking.

Using "drag" is too implicit, just use "lai".

If it were just Shen Wansan who had a huge fortune, it would be a waste to confiscate a house.

With so many accounts, if the imperial court rejected them all at once, these businessmen would not hesitate at all and would immediately reject the following accounts.

The final result was that the people who were willing to help the court overcome the difficulties, the families of the gentry were ruined, and the two capitals and 13 provinces immediately fell into chaos.

This is destined to be an account that cannot be ignored.

"The two elders mean to owe you first?"

Yan Song pondered for a long time before speaking.

"Your Majesty, human life is at stake."

"What a man's life is at stake." Jiajing took a few steps back, then sat down on the dragon chair and began to think deeply.

It was eerily quiet inside Wuyi Hall.

I don't know how long it took before Jiajing spoke.

"Divide."

Yan Song and Xu Jie were startled, and looked at Jiajing in disbelief.

"His Majesty……?"

"The cabinet first discusses the general ledger with the businessman, and then asks the businessman to appease the people of our country first, and the cabinet will continue to discuss the rest."

"The reforms have not stopped, and the reforms will continue. The business tax will be transferred from the internal funds to the Ministry of Households, and the cabinet will draw up a charter. How to deal with the aftermath will be reported to the Supervisor of Rites for my approval."

"Play drums and buy candies. Everyone goes about their business and goes on errands." Jiajing flicked his sleeves and walked towards Xiyuan.

Jiajing knew it better than anyone else.

Since the court owed this money.

It would be impossible for those businessmen and civil servants in power to let the court pay back their debts so easily.

For Jiajing, the Wai Dynasty is no longer the "family business" that can be responsible for its own profits and losses, and can make a steady profit without losing money.

No matter how you look at it, it is time for Ming Dynasty to re-establish a new order.

The Ming Dynasty finally took the first and most crucial step of the king's financial independence from the imperial court.

As long as we can talk about it, the rest is easy to talk about.

(End of this chapter)