Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 788
Five years after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, Jiangnan was occupied for four years. The war left the originally prosperous Jiangnan devastated, and everything was left to be done.

After the cabinet handled the state funeral of Emperor Gaozong and the enthronement ceremony of the new emperor, the restoration of the authority of the central court and the restoration of the economy and people's livelihood in the south of the Yangtze River were put on the agenda.

At the beginning of September, following the transfer of the power to appoint officials to the central government, the Chu Party once again proposed that the provincial finances should be reduced by [-]% at the local level, and [-]% should be handed over to the central government in order to centralize financial power, but Tang and Lu fiercely opposed it.

In mid-September, the Chu Party proposed a proposal to crack down on maritime smuggling and increase taxes, which was passed by the cabinet with a narrow margin.

The next day, the Zhejiang Party requested to open the East China Sea and add two ports of Ningbo and Hangzhou to trade with North Korea and Japan, but the Chu Party rejected it.

At the end of September, after all parties negotiated a compromise in private, the Chu Party once again submitted a proposal to increase local expenditures to [-]%, and promised to open the sea in an all-round way, and increase the three cities of Quanzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai to conduct trade. pass.

When Wang Yan gradually brought the government back on track with the prestige of restoring Nanjing, the whole of Jiangnan had to face a cruel incident.

Autumn harvest was supposed to be a busy season, but the Jiangnan campaign, which was fought from February to March until August, caused a lot of state capitals in the south of the Yangtze River to have poor harvests in summer and autumn. , By September, many people's food stocks had been eaten up, and a large number of hungry people began to emerge in Nanzhili.

The war affected the whole of Nanzhi, and the state capitals in the east and west of Nanjing all suffered from famine due to the impact of the war, and many hungry people have begun to flock to Nanjing.

The gathering of hungry people is definitely a terrifying thing. In order to control the disaster and control the hungry people, Wang Yan wrote a letter asking the counties to hold the hungry people firmly and prevent the hungry people from flocking to Nanjing, while allocating food to the counties for disaster relief.

Taiping Mansion, Dangtu County, is the county closest to Nanjing among several disaster relief counties in the west of Nanjing, and it is also an important channel for hungry people from Chizhou and other places to flock to Nanjing.

At this time, the official road leading to Nanjing in Dangtu County was covered with endless tents, stretching for more than ten miles, and more than 20 victims of the disaster lived there.

This is only a small part of the entire Jiangnan disaster victims, and the Ming court is facing severe challenges.

Wang Yan, escorted by nearly a hundred cavalrymen, came outside the camp. The magistrate of Taiping Prefecture and the magistrate of Dangtu County came to greet him.

Zhizhou is an old bureaucrat named Sun Zhongyi, who is about 50 years old, smart and capable, but also very slippery.The county magistrate was promoted by Chu Tang, a Juren from Hengyang Mansion, named Chen Yanwen, only 27, full of vigor, but clear water chestnut.

Wang Yan got off his horse and entered the tent area with them. Chen Yanwen introduced to Wang Yan as he walked: "Your Highness, most of these are not hungry people from Dangtu, but come from the direction of Chizhou. Nearly 20 people have gathered so far. Most of these hungry people are tenants without land."

This was supposed to be reported by the prefect, but Chen Yanwen did Sun Zhongyi's work, but the latter seemed to take it for granted. After all, he was an official anyway, and his subordinate was a fresh-faced Chu party, so he naturally stood aside.

Wang Yan didn't say anything, but he felt melancholy about the situation in his heart.

"Is there enough food?" Wang Yan asked.

This is what he is most concerned about. With so many people, the daily food consumption must be astonishing.

"Although the Ministry of Households has made allocations, the grain that should be smeared may only last for half a month." Chen Yanwen replied.

"What's the situation with the food in Nanjing?" Wang Yan frowned slightly, turned his head, and asked about Wang Fuzhi, who arrived in Nanjing in mid-September and served as the left servant of the household department.

"Reporting to Your Highness, it's not a lot." Wang Fuzhi pondered: "Hong Chengchou has stored some food in Nanjing, but this time the disaster in the south of the Yangtze River is too great, and there are too many hungry people. I'm afraid that all the relief will not last until the end of the eleventh."

"How much money is left in the household account?" Wang Yan pursed his lips.

"To conquer Nanjing, from the government treasury, as well as from the houses of Mancheng and Touqing officials, a total of 100 million taels of silver was confiscated, and there were hundreds of thousands of hectares of land and dozens of cotton spinning workshops."

Li Zicheng conquered Beijing and took nearly 7000 million taels, while the Ming army only had more than 1000 million taels. The main reason is that Nanjing is not the home of the Eight Banners. Most of the wealth they searched in the south of the Yangtze River was sent to Beijing.

However, the 100 taels, together with the property and workshops, is equivalent to a year's tax of the Ming Dynasty, and the debts he owed have also been settled.

When Wang Yan heard that there was so much money, he was slightly surprised. Thinking about how miserable it was when the city of Beijing was destroyed, there was only less than 10 taels left in the treasury, but now there are 100 million taels.

However, the money seems to be a lot, but after careful calculation, it is not much.

At the end of the year, Wang Yan had to repay nearly 500 million debts, and then rewarded the three armies, which cost about 100 million. After that, he had to pay, and the rest was about 300 million.

"Take out 200 million taels and go to Nanyang to buy grain immediately!" Wang Yan sighed.

Wang Fuzhi has served as an elevator for the Department of Shipping, and now he knows more about trade than Wang Yan.

"Your Highness, it's scary not to be able to buy food with money now!
Wang Yan was slightly taken aback, a little confused, "How to say?"

Wang Fuzhi said in a deep voice: "Nanyang only produces so much grain every year. In the past few years, we have gone to Nanyang to buy grain every year, and there is not much grain in Nanyang. In addition, the South China Sea is now at war with Heyi, and the shipping route is not safe. We can buy more grain. The food available is really limited.”

Wang Yandao didn't expect this situation, that even if he had money, he couldn't buy food, but after thinking about it carefully, he could understand that to buy with money, you must first have something before you can buy it.

"You can count as much as you can buy!" Wang Yan's face darkened, and he said helplessly.

Seeing this, Chen Yanwen couldn't help stepping forward and said, "Your Highness, there is a shortage of food, and I have an idea."

Wang Yan looked at him, a little surprised, and couldn't help but stop, "Tell me."

Chen Yanwen was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "Your Highness, although the common people have no food, some big gentry households still have food, and these gentry can provide food and come out to help the disaster."

In troubled times, folks like to hoard grain most. The common people may be helpless in the face of the Qing court's looting, but the great gentry have their own ways, and they can hoard some grain.

Wang Yan frowned, "Although the gentry have grain, they won't take it out for no reason. Are you asking the orphans to ask them to buy grain?"

Chen Yanwen saluted and said: "Your Highness, this famine has a large area and a large number of people. The imperial court alone is definitely not enough. Some of the victims are tenants without land, some are rich peasants with land, and tenants without land. The imperial court needs relief. Then rich households can be allowed to come forward to buy land, so the pressure on the imperial court will definitely be greatly reduced.”

"Are you letting the big family take the opportunity to annex the land?" Wang Yan's face changed drastically when he heard that.

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(End of this chapter)