A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 621 Repercussion
In the twelfth lunar month of the 14th year of Chongzhen, Yulin Fort.

In a blink of an eye, Wang Dou has been in the fort for many days, and the soldiers are working outside, so he naturally needs to lead by example, and cannot return to Yongning City to reunite with his family.

Originally, it was his 29th birthday on the 30th of last month, but it was postponed, and a grand celebration will be held after all the dust settles.For this matter, not only the family members of the Marquis of Yongning, but also the shogunate have worked hard on it. This is also a happy event for the whole army and the common people.

Wang Dou's current status is very important, there is an endless stream of people who come to celebrate his birthday, from cabinet ministers to Beijing officials, and then to local officials, people who have never dealt with Wang Dou have also sent confidant envoys one after another. Gathered.

Of course, the business war on the East Road, and Wang Dou's categorical arrest and ransacking of his house also affected the minds of all parties. They sent people here with the intention of investigating.

The governor of Xuanda and the governors of the three towns also arrived at the East Road early, and they all lived in Huailai City.

Many people are waiting for the progress and results of things.

Yang Guozhu had ordered his subordinates to return to the town, but he led some of his personal guards to stay. Ji Town was fine for the time being, and more importantly, Wang Dou had not yet entered the town to hand over military affairs to him.

It is not an easy task for a new official to take office in the Ming Dynasty. In addition to all inspections and cooperation, Emperor Gao stipulated dozens of instructions for taking office, which needs to be handed over from old and new officials one by one, so Yang Guozhu also stayed and waited and watched. Things are going.

This incident caused an uproar again.

Wang Dou, Marquis of Yongning, was resting in the capital, and when he returned to the East Road, he immediately fought again. This time, the action was even bigger. In addition to the soldiers and horses of the East Road, he also united with the soldiers and horses of Datong Town and Shanxi Town. He carried out arrests and ransacked his home, and his footprints spread all over the three towns of Xuanda.

Such audacity is truly astonishing.

Although the intelligence department spread everywhere and spread a large number of criminal evidence of profiteers all over the capital, north and south, there were still waves of anger and impeachment.

After all, Wang Dou's arrest of profiteers this time involves too many interests and forces, and many people are unavoidably sad. Moreover, many of them have colluded with and contacted profiteers. If these people are arrested, will they be involved in the future?Everyone is afraid.

Therefore, not only the governors and censors of the three towns, officials from Shanxi, members of the Eunuch Party who sympathized with them, and many members of the Donglin Party who sympathized with them, all wrote letters of impeachment.

Local and public opinion can confuse right and wrong, but when impeachment is written, it cannot fail to talk about the sins of profiteers. This is becoming more and more difficult to cover up with the spread of leaflets. However, if you want to attack a person, you can naturally find other crimes.

To be honest, in the eyes of all the officials, it is very easy to find Wang Dou's attack loopholes, let alone other things, just talk about your Wang Dou East Army, how qualified and powerful are you to cross the border and go to Datong Town, Shanxi Town, etc. go somewhere else?

What is this doing?
Also, attacking the city without authorization, fighting with the garrisons in various places, etc. What kind of crime is this?
No matter how guilty the merchants are, they will be dealt with by their own divisions. If you are a guarding general, what right do you have to arrest everyone?Your hand is stretched too far. This is a serious act of ultra vires. Do you have ulterior motives?
Etc., etc.

Raindrops of impeachment memorials flew straight from the ruling and opposition parties.

Public opinion among the people was also raging. In the capital, Wang Dou's supporters and opponents were arguing, and countless copyists crowded in the corridors of the six departments, waiting for the reaction of the court and the emperor.

According to the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, the Six Divisions received the memorials from the yamen every day, then copied them into a book, and sent them to the cabinet every five days for compilation.

After Zhu approved the chapters, the Six Divisions or the General Administration Department also compiled these chapters, or compiled them into a court report. Those who want to know the content of the court report in Beijing's various yamen may send their own yamen to the corridor to copy it. Biography, or sent by the six divisions to distribute, forwarded to each yamen to know the government.

This is also the origin of Dibao.

For all parties, the attitude of the court and the emperor can be clearly known from the content of the mansion newspaper.

However, the palace in Chaozhong was still silent, and the mountains of memorials were poured in, but nothing came to nothing.

In the end, everyone found that they had nothing to do with Wang Dou except to murmur. His raid and arrest were still proceeding in an orderly manner.

Some people adjusted their strategy and turned to impeach Xuanda governor Ji Shiwei, and even Xuanfu governor Zhu Zhifeng, Shanxi governor Cai Maode, Datong governor Wei Jingyuan, eunuch Du Xun and others.

It's just that these people belong to different factions, each has its own relationship, former disciples, local government supporters, etc., impeaching them will inevitably lead to internal fighting and mutual attack among the people, which is really chaotic.

At the end of November, the palace sent out several orders of reprimand, which lifted everyone's spirits, but there was no more after that...

Seeing that merchants were arrested one by one and their properties were confiscated, some people adjusted their strategies again and focused their energy on the confiscation of the confiscated properties of each family, which should be handed over to the court.

Also, the involvement of these collaborators and profiteers is too great, and it is not just a matter of publicity, so they should be handed over to the imperial court for a joint trial by the three divisions, and the Ministry of Punishment, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the officials of the Dali Temple will record and deal with it together.

On these points, the cabinet ministers all agreed.

Also, because some officials and generals may be involved, those who are arrested should also report the decree and ask the emperor to make a decision.

According to the laws and regulations of the Ming Dynasty, if officials commit crimes, all officials in the capital and officials of the fifth rank or above who have committed crimes must be heard and asked for decrees, and they are not allowed to ask questions.

Below the sixth grade, listen to the history of patrolling, according to the inspection division, and divide it into divisions, ask questions to understand, and then discuss the proposed listening area.Even the county magistrates in various prefectures and counties committed crimes, and the superiors under their jurisdiction were not allowed to inquire without authorization, and they were forbidden to issue the reasons for the crimes, and they were actually sealed.

Everyone is a merchant in name, why don't they have officials and nobles?

There are also many members of their families and ethnic groups who are either officials or generals. If these people are arrested and sent to Beijing, they will have more room to maneuver. After all, no one knows better than them when it comes to exploiting loopholes in the law.

Although Wang Dou has not expressed his attitude yet, it is never wrong to exert pressure.

……

Amid all the chaos, Wang Dou was leisurely at the Yulin Fort General's Mansion, looking at the results of the house raids from various places. According to the final statistics, the amount of gold and silver seized may reach 500 million taels, which is an astonishing amount. Everyone's wealth is indeed worthy of the name.

These are still cash.

Of course, some of the silver coins in it were connected with profiteers and were confiscated by officials when they resisted arrest.

Although this action, Wang Dou is only targeting everyone, but Wang Dou will not be polite to those who are jointly resisting them.

For example, Lai Tianlu, Li Jian'e, and Yang Tianfu, who participated in Xuanfu's route, led their troops to besiege Wen Fangliang's left camp in Zhangjiakou. This move is unforgivable.

Especially when Wang Dou received the whistleblower report, Lai Tianlu, Li Jiane and others drove the women and children to the battle. Wang Dou was furious and ordered all these generals to be arrested and searched their homes. At the same time, some second-class troops were sent to Zhangjiakou for support.

With these gold and silver, I can do many things.

Moreover, in addition to gold and silver, this operation also obtained many real objects, such as a large amount of grain, rice, beans, cloth, salt, tea, coal and iron, as well as many houses, fields, shops, etc. confiscated by profiteers. Pawns, banks, etc.

All kinds of goods can be collected in warehouses, houses, fields and shops, and can be used for auctions to win over merchants and officials who are friendly with themselves.

While calculating, Wang Dou picked up another piece of information.

Not long ago, Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen had already gone south. When they passed Zhuozhou, they received 30 shots of Donglu bird guns and [-] shots of mighty medicine supported by Wang Dou there. At this time, Kaifeng was still besieged. After they went south, The war may have a turning point.

However, Tang Tong was still procrastinating. Judging from his appearance, it should be after a year before going south.

There is also intelligence, officials from the third division, may come to the East Road.

While meditating, Wang Dou suddenly received a report from the guards again, and the governor of the Xuanfu Zhu Zhifeng asked to see him again, accompanied by the governor of Datong, Wei Jingyuan.

Wang Dou shook his head: "This old man."

Because the Jingbian Army was in charge of the specific house raids, and the Zhenfu Division checked and counted them, and then they were transported to the East Road continuously, and then the Financial Secretary took over, so it is difficult for outsiders to know how much Wang Dou seized.

Regarding Wang Dou's harvest, there are different opinions from the outside world, and there are all kinds of figures, but one thing is certain, Wang Dou has become rich, and the birthday parties gathered on East Road are discussing this all day long.

There have been rumors that the so-called profiteers fell and Wang Dou was full.

Therefore, many officials impeached Wang Dou, saying that his information was not transparent, his government affairs were not open, and he was suspected of enriching his own pockets.

Even Du Xun was suspicious. For a while he felt that what Wang Dou had given him was already very satisfying, and for a while he felt that it was too little. He even went to Wang Pu to inquire about it. Smiling and silent.

Zhu Zhifeng was also very concerned about the confiscation, and came to Wang Dou several times to tell Wang Dou that these treasures are all the people's anointing, and they should be handed over to the court for urgent needs everywhere, etc.

After the gold, silver, grain and rice arrived, he had to lead someone to take stock of them himself, but was firmly blocked by the officials of the Department of Appeals and the Department of Finance, and he had to blow his beard and stare all day long.

Regarding these taels of silver, Wang Dou was also thinking about how much taels he should hand over to the court for various purposes besides the 100 million taels given to the emperor.

Soon, Zhu Zhifeng came in with a dark face, followed by Wei Jingyuan, the governor of Datong who also wore a red official robe, who was smiling.

Seeing Wang Dou, Zhu Zhifeng said angrily: "Marquis Yongning, I dare to ask, are you still a minister of the Ming Dynasty?"

Wang Dou was surprised and said, "Of course this is the Marquis. Why did Mr. Zhu say such a thing?"

Zhu Zhifeng's face turned pale, but he still asked angrily: "Then why do I not know the exact amount of property obtained from traitors and thieves? The lower officials intend to send people to check, but were blocked by the East Road officials. Are they still officials of the court? "

Having said that, he sounded stern.

Wang Dou said: "Oh, is there such a thing? Don't worry, Mr. Zhu. This Marquis will definitely investigate in detail and give Mr. Zhu an explanation."

Soon things became clear, and Wang Dou severely reprimanded the relevant personnel and asked them to take Zhu Zhifeng to take stock.

Zhu Zhifeng went happily, only Wei Jingyuan, who didn't say a word except to see the ceremony, sighed.

His character is soft but tough, facing him, Wang Dou feels more difficult than Zhu Zhifeng, because he signed the arrest decree, so he also suffered impeachment attacks.

Soon, Zhu Zhifeng made a clear count and counted the documents.

With the sound of a thunderbolt, astonishing news spread in all directions. The amount of gold and silver that Donglu obtained during the confiscation of the property of profiteers reached an astonishing 200 million taels. Inside.

But in the capital, when they got the news, everyone was in an uproar. Even Emperor Chongzhen gasped when he got the result of the house raid.

More than 200 million taels, this is not 200 taels, nor 2000 taels, but more than 200 million taels!Emperor Xian sent a large number of tax envoys. After decades of tossing and tossing, how much did he get?The income from the treasury silver is less than 300 million taels!
The consequences are still being scolded by the ministers!
Moreover, the silver does not include the 100 million taels for himself.

It is inevitable that Wang Dou and others will hide some benefits from the house raids. According to his estimation, the gold and silver obtained by raiding the profiteers should be more than 300 million taels, or even 400 million!
This is still silver, some real objects, not counted yet.

He gritted his teeth and said bitterly: "I never thought that these adulterers and profiteers are so rich!"

(End of this chapter)