Lu Ming

Page 208

When Wei Xu said this, he turned to face the throne and bowed in salute: "Your Majesty, since Cao Chuan has accepted the crime of abusing the people, please send this person down."

Chongzhen, who was sitting on the stage, laughed when he heard the words, with a face full of disdain: "Master Cao and Master Xu are fighting for land, why should I favor your family?"

After Wei Xu was satirized by the emperor, he was stunned for a moment, and then he blushed instantly, turned his head and asked loudly: "Even so, Cao Chuan, how can you explain why you killed the Jinyiwei family first, and then bombarded the Xu family mansion? Ling Xingbing killed the imperial court officials without a decree in the confidant of Ming Dynasty. This is ironclad evidence of conspiracy. Thousands of people on both sides of the Pujiang River can testify that day, and you can't get away with it!"

Cao Zongbing sighed helplessly when he heard this: "Yes, mobilizing troops without orders is treason, thank you for knowing this."

"My Majesty, before I arrived in Shanghai at the beginning of the year, the private port I bought in Jiading County was once attacked by two bandits."

"This is the first case of bandits from Taihu Lake, so I won't say much about it. After all, thousands of lake bandits crossed continents and counties to Jiading to loot in the most benevolent place in the south of the Yangtze River. It can probably be said."

Uncle Zhongyong said this, and looked at Wei Xu with a half-smile: "This second incident is weird. On October 28 (lunar calendar) last year, Jinshan Wei Hangjiahu Counselor Feng Tong's army training guerrilla Wang Deqiao, Zeng personally led 1500 soldiers. A regular soldier, out of the camp for a hundred miles, with a tiger and two cannons, besieged the private port for two days, and then retreated."

"I said Wei Xu, who is raising troops without orders in the heart of Daming? Which family is plotting rebellion?"

"Bastard, what happened!?" Chongzhen was dumbfounded when he heard this: "Where is Liang Tingdong? Last year, the Ministry of War ordered Yuhangjiahu to join the general?"

The new Minister of War, Liang Tingdong, is not a member of the Donglin Party. Even if he was, he would not be able to talk nonsense about this kind of head loss, so he stepped forward and replied: "Your Majesty, I have not been in office for a long time. I don't know. But according to the As far as we know, there were no military disasters in Hangjia and other places last year."

"Investigate! Strictly investigate! According to my order, Feng Tong, Wang Deqiao and others will be dismissed immediately and sent back to the capital for interrogation. I will definitely investigate this matter!"

Seeing the emperor furiously on the throne and the stunned Wei Xu, Uncle Zhongyong smiled and shook his head: "Master Wei, you spend all your time trying to form a clique to harm me, but have you ever thought that the Xu family is audacious?" ? Haha, I didn’t inform you about the unauthorized deployment of troops, did I?”

After teasing Wei Xu, Cao Zongbing turned his face and said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, those evil gentry from the Xu family colluded with the Jinyiwei and the Nanjing Military Department. He is the great thief of the country."

Having said that, Uncle Zhongyong turned around and pointed at a chubby middle-aged man among the officials and shouted: "Xu Bengao, your clan brother Xu Jin used Suzhou Jinyiwei to mobilize troops for no purpose to rebel. I'm afraid it was because of your power." ?”

With a "plop", Xu Bengao, whose face had already turned pale, jumped out of the queue and knelt down to the emperor.

Ignoring Cao Chuan who was standing aside, Xu Bengao shouted to the emperor with a mournful face: "I am wronged, Your Majesty, this matter must have been framed by the loyal and brave uncle. The ministers have been loyal for generations and have been loyal to the court. How can they do such a rebellious act?" Things?"

"Hmph, you can find out if it's true or not, and you can go down now." Chongzhen glanced at Xu Bengao in disgust, and then looked at Jin Yiwei's official commander Luo Yangxing: "Look at the good deeds you Jin Yiwei has done!"

Luo Yangxing had already scolded Xu Bengao's ancestors for eight generations in his mind at this moment.Luo Yangxing, who was lying on the ground for no reason, hurried out to kneel to thank him, and vowed to send all the criminals back to the capital for interrogation.

When the matter developed to this point, the originally arrogant line of civil servants disappeared as soon as they saw it.

All the people present were old foxes, and one could guess from Cao's insider words just now and Xu Bengao's reaction: the matter of privately dispatching regular battalion soldiers to attack houses in the south of the Yangtze River in the hinterland of Ming Dynasty was probably true.

It stands to reason that such a big or small matter can be fooled by everyone if they try their best on weekdays.However, everyone knows that this matter is absolutely unacceptable today.

Because the ministers knew that the emperor sitting on the throne was here to try to push back today, but it turned out that such a big handle fell into the hands of the emperor... If anyone dares to go forward and talk nonsense at this time, then once After Jinshanwei's idiot generals and soldiers were escorted back to the capital to be tortured by Jinyiwei, the emperor would definitely settle the score after the autumn—what would the conspiracy party do?

……

When the emperors Ye Zhengde and Wanli were in Taiwan in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there was a sick phenomenon in the court: civil servants desperately posted posts against the emperor, and then the emperor ordered court battles against the courtiers, and then the courtiers became famous, and became He became a scholarly leader, a model of being upright and not afraid of imperial power.

This trick is called "cheat court battle".

However, today, this set of funny things can no longer be used: the social contradictions in the late Ming Dynasty were severe, and the political environment had long since changed from being relaxed to being imprisoned.Just like the end of the previous dynasties, at the end of Ming Dynasty, the emperor and the courtiers became cruel and vicious. Families were often destroyed in political disputes, and the court environment deteriorated day by day.

Therefore, once the civil servants in the hall today are really caught by the emperor, no one will jump out to cheat the court - Chongzhen will order this person to be beaten to death.

You must know that Chongzhen reigned for 17 years, and the high-ranking officials who died under him, 1 assistant minister, 4 ministers, 7 governors and supervisors, 11 governors, and the rest below the servants were ordered to die in various ways Officials are simply hard to count.

So at this moment, the court was as silent as cicadas, and there were no civil officials who jumped out to sell their loyalty, because Chongzhen really knew how to kill.

Chapter 476 The Golden Temple Splashes ([-])

The old Zhu's family has ancestral skills in killing courtiers.

Needless to say, Zhu Yuanzhang.In later generations, people may not be able to talk about Lao Zhu's other achievements, but people must be familiar with the two verbs with profound connotations, cleaning the old brother, and the peeling last grass and melon vine he created.

An emperor who left his name in history by inventing a new model of killing officials is no one.

The next Zhu Di is not a fuel-efficient lamp.

Zhu Di, who is equivalent to re-founding the country, is naturally murderous in the face of a large number of former officials with questionable loyalty.

After that, the successor emperor will die.The latecomers first faced the increasingly stable court structure and the increasingly powerful scholar-bureaucrat group—in the early days of the dynasty, there were few social conflicts, the growth rate of the bottom population increased, and the power of the landlord class expanded accordingly.

Secondly, the conservative emperors had neither the ability and vigor to found a country, nor enough political prestige.In a word, Yu Guo has no merit.You, a rich N generation who came to power by blood, how can you mass murder?So in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor retreated step by step in front of the scholar-bureaucrat group, and there was such a funny show as deceiving the court.

Not to mention Zhu Baba's funny script of civil servants, even in Zhu Di's era, it would have ended up killing the whole family.

Then it's the end of tomorrow.

At this time, the situation turned to another extreme: social conflicts broke out, the scholar-bureaucrat group could no longer hold the situation, and then everyone happened to meet a young emperor who was not capable enough but was determined to turn the tide.

So it's a tragedy.

After realizing that he was taking over a super mess, the impatient Emperor Chongzhen began to attack officials.

At this time, the bureaucratic group also lost its confidence-the current situation has become like this, the scholar-official group in charge of specific administration, annexing the world's land, and dividing up the country's tax revenue is not responsible. Could it be that the pot is thrown to hide in the palace to do carpentry work? the emperor?

After Chongzhen came to power, the bureaucrats were quite happy at first, because Jiuqian Sui and the Eunuch Party were dealt with first.

However, when the young emperor found out that the situation had not changed, it had become even worse. Not to mention the loss of balance in the court, even the capital was surrounded by Tartars... The emperor's anger was aimed at these people on the stage.

From the time Yuan Chonghuan was cut, Chongzhen raised the butcher knife without hesitation, and began to let himself go, and never returned on the road of incompetence and rage.

In this Jisi change, apart from Yuan Chonghuan who was directly killed, there are actually many other ministers who were directly and indirectly killed by the emperor.

The academician Qian Longxi was sentenced to death for being implicated in the Yuan case. Later, he narrowly escaped his life and almost became the second chief assistant whose head was beheaded by the emperor since Ariake.This gentleman was later assigned to Xu Shou Ding Haiwei. In the end of the Chongzhen Dynasty, he was not allowed to return after two amnesties.

However, Qian Longxi's fate is still good.

During the Jisi Incident, Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Liaodong, was killed in Chongzhen, Wang Qia, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, was imprisoned, and three doctors were beaten to death with random sticks.Qiao Yunsheng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishments, and Qian Longxi, a bachelor, were imprisoned and sentenced to be exiled after being hanged, and Han Jisi was succeeded by Han Jisi.

Liu Ce, governor of Jiliao, Zhang Xianshi, governor of Shanxi, Geng Ruqi, governor of Shanxi, and Zhang Honggong, commander in chief, asked to be executed...

Those who were dismissed like Hou Shilu, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, were actually considered lucky.

Each of the above high-ranking officials who were directly killed by Chongzhen will be accompanied by varying numbers of middle and low-level criminals.A group of officials who surrendered in Yongping, such as Li Jichun, the second and fifth son who was hacked to death by the order of Chongzhen in history, are nothing, and they can't get on the stage at all.

With just one change in himself, Chongzhen has gained a lot of prestige.

Chongzhen was not as domineering as the founding emperor when he dealt with officials.Zhu Yuanzhang killed people regardless of civil or martial arts. He often ransacked his family and exterminated his family, and even brought his neighbors along with him.

And Chongzhen is still a bit restrained here.Not only was he unable to take the sword against powerful warlords like Zu Dashou, but he also seldom ransacked the families of ministers.

However, this is scary enough: in the late Ming society, there was air leakage and smoke everywhere, and these incompetent talkative scholars and bureaucrats were full of mistakes in front of Chongzhen. If they really wanted to kill them, they would kill them if they wanted. Out.

After hundreds of years of peace, the scholar-bureaucrats who had been arrogant throughout the middle and late Ming Dynasty were awakened by Chongzhen in the recent period of precariousness when the country was founded.

……

In today's battle in Huangji Palace, although the script was still designed by the civil servants, one core has changed: the civil servants can no longer defeat Uncle Zhongyong by reversing black and white, making strong words, and having a large number of people as before.

In front of a biased Chongzhen, if he wanted to overthrow someone surnamed Cao, he had to come up with real evidence based on facts.In addition, no matter whether it succeeds or not today, the initiators will probably have to pay a price——Xu Bengao, Wei Xu, and Hangjiahu Counselor Nanjing Military Department, etc., are about to pay the price.What is uncertain now is how many people will Chongzhen kill this time?

Seeing that the group of people who came to besiege him aggressively just now had all retreated to the train, Uncle Zhongyong was full of arrogance at this moment.

I saw him stepping forward with his chest and stomach protruding, walked to the opposite side of a group of civil servants with big headscarves, then slapped his chest hard according to the established reckless persona, raised his thumb, pointed at the tip of his nose and said arrogantly: "Old Cao, I was born recklessly. I never turn corners in my actions, and I pay attention to being open and aboveboard!"

"The Xu family sent troops to beat me, and I sent troops to bombard his house. This is called retaliation!"

"Today in the Golden Luan Hall, in front of the emperor, old... my old Cao has a clear conscience, and I said the same thing!"

Uncle Zhongyong suddenly turned around and bowed his waist, clasped his fists to the throne and said, "Your Majesty, Lao Cao went to bombard Xu's family that day, but none of his soldiers disembarked, and he gave Xu's family a stick of incense to escape."

"In the end, Lao Cao just blasted an empty house to vent his anger, and thousands of people on both sides of the Huangpu River can testify!"

Chongzhen on the stage nodded gently when he heard this: Compared with those civil servants who talk cloudy and act irresponsibly on weekdays, Cao Zongbing's way is more in the emperor's appetite.

"Cao Qing can rest assured, I will definitely investigate this matter thoroughly."

……

Seeing the duo colluding in public, Hou Xun, the behind-the-scenes chief planner of this political tide, became a little anxious: Bandits Cao actually wiped out and beat them up, not only cleaning up the "abuse of the people", but also compromising their own side and damaging the generals. The hall uttered unreasonable words, it is really impossible to allow this beast to be rampant again.

However, to his surprise, the snipers who had been arranged before were all dumbfounded at this meeting, and no one stood up and continued to hate Cao.

Seeing that the situation is not good, Hou Xun can only play shirtless.He stood up from the queue and said coldly to Uncle Zhongyong: "Cao Chuan, don't rush to be arrogant, you must not slip away from the 12 major crimes in the memorial!"

"Tch, this hall official, I will teach you to be a good boy today. If you want to convict someone, one sentence is enough."

Cao Zongbing came to the capital for only a few days, and he didn't actually know Hou Xun, but this didn't prevent him from hating others.After exchanging words, Cao Zongbing began to pick up the memorial and continued to defend himself against the remaining charges.

The remaining charges, excluding those who are useless to make up the scale, are actually the most core accusations of "rebellion" that everyone knows, referring to the production model and the absorption of refugees.

What made the scholar-bureaucrats restless was that apart from absorbing refugees, the industrialized farming model implemented by the crossing people in Taiwan was the key point.

As for those factories that are really deadly, the scholar-bureaucrats can't sum up anything.Now is the seventeenth century, and people can't infer the horror of the production line just from the description in the brochure.

Regarding the above two points, they are actually related to each other. Uncle Zhongyong then gave a reasonable explanation.

First of all, Uncle Zhongyong still generously admitted the matter of plowing the fields, and explained to everyone in the hall that he had led his brothers to drive away the savages in Tainan and occupied the vast plain before he was recruited.

After that, because of the lack of food, his men couldn't eat enough, so he began to trade with overseas Alaska merchants who were good at making tools, bought iron carts for farming from that country, and introduced some workshops.

Having said this, Uncle Zhongyong spread his hands and questioned the officials in the palace: "There are a lot of wild fields but few people cultivate them. Lao Cao, I try to buy some iron oxen to plow the fields. What is the crime?"

After asking this sentence, Uncle Zhongyong took advantage of the situation and talked about recruiting refugees: Tieniu is not omnipotent, the number is small and difficult to serve, so he needs to recruit refugees from Daming to work and farm.

The next moment, Uncle Zhongyong threw out his trump card.

He told everyone present: the fertile plain that is as large as a county, over the years, the savages on it have been cleaned up by his brothers, and water conservancy projects have also been repaired.

Not only that, he also bought the secret method to restrain miasma from Alaska.Today, Tainan is no longer an overseas evil island that people have heard and changed, but a well-known rich place in Fujian and Guangdong.

The most important thing is, he is loyal and brave, sir, when did he say that people are not allowed to buy land and fields?

After saying this, Uncle Zhongyong and the officials looked at each other, and the time paused for a few seconds.The next moment, there was a burst of whispering in the train.

The quick-responsive courtiers had figured out what Uncle Zhongyong meant: everyone present can go to Taiwan to buy land, and then send people to plow the fields.In this way, the so-called accusation ceased to exist—the land was bought by the gentry, so naturally they could grow it however they wanted, wouldn’t it become a prefecture of Daming?

So Hou Xun was dumbfounded.

At this time Uncle Zhongyong continued to say loudly: "In the land in Yizhou, the rice is harvested twice a year. As long as someone is willing to pay for it, I will sell it!... The price is only five taels of silver per mu, and the whole land can be sold for a hundred hectares. If I don’t have Lao Tzu, I won’t serve you, this name is called attracting investment.”

Seeing the shocked and greedy eyes of the courtiers, Uncle Zhongyong laughed, turned around and said to Chongzhen: "Don't worry, your majesty, in fact, Lao Cao also prepared Huangzhuang to give gifts in Yizhou early in the morning, and there will be production and delivery on time from now on." Entering the capital, I still hope to accept it!"

Seeing this country turtle openly bribed the emperor in the temple, all the courtiers were shocked at this moment.

Chongzhen laughed out loud when he heard the words, until tears flowed from his laughter.

Chapter 477

A menacing and passionate political tide ended in such an anticlimactic way.There is no way, the sea can be moved in front of the interests, and a small misunderstanding will end the conversation.

In the last scene of the day, Cao thief, no, Uncle Zhongyong's promise to buy land has played a role in dredging the bottom.This move not only put aside the criticism of the civil official group, but also attracted a group of potential collaborators: on the way to the end of the court that day, some people were already talking about the future of the hundred hectares of paddy fields.

Let's just say that, in hindsight, it seems like a misunderstanding? …Before when people learned that someone went to Jiangnan to buy land, they used to think that the other party was expanding their territory.

As a result, when I said this today, everyone realized that their understanding was wrong.Cao's purchase of land in the south of the Yangtze River to build a port does not mean that he has no shortage of people in Yizhou, so he is willing to share the benefits with honest men.

This allows for planning and planning.

1 hectare has an area of ​​100 mu.Although it shows that the mu of the present generation is slightly smaller than that of the later generations, it is calculated according to the 667 square meters of the later generations for Uncle Zhongyong.It is promised to start selling 10000 hectares of land, that is, [-] mu of mature fields connected together and equipped with water conservancy systems.

This is the foundation of a fortune that can be used as a family heirloom.In an ordinary village in the south of the Yangtze River, the whole village only has two to three thousand mu of land, and this is still shared by N households.

What's even more powerful is that Uncle Zhongyong said that there is no limit to the top.Then the family of noble gentry and relatives of the emperor who have a lot of money in their homes can even buy [-] mu, [-] mu... No one will be tempted.

In ancient times, productivity was low, and the people were simply unable to organize and build large-scale drainage and irrigation systems like later generations.Even in the south of the Yangtze River, where the water system is criss-crossed, Zhongtian and Xiatian account for the majority, and there are always a small number of good paddy fields near the river.

If Uncle Zhongyong brought out the wild land of Yizhou, the scholar-bureaucrats would not even roll their eyes: There was too much wasteland in the seventeenth century, so was it necessary to travel so far?

But when drainage and irrigation systems are installed on these plots, in the perception of Ming people, it is really a family heirloom.What's more, these lands are only 5 taels of silver per mu, and they are still contiguous, super high-quality assets!

The reason why the condition put forward by Uncle Zhongyong was instantly accepted without being questioned was because of the light of the previous black material: the pamphlet written by Bu Daxing, in order to arouse the hatred of scholar-bureaucrats, described in detail the iron Oxen plowed the land, the yield per mu was five or six hundred catties, and a large number of Ming people went to the workshop to work on these things.

So people figured it out as soon as they turned their heads: if a rice field can produce five or six hundred catties at a high rate, it must be irrigated. If there are a large number of Ming people working in the workshop, then the miasma mentioned by Uncle Zhongyong should be solved. Not fooling people.

If this is the case, then what are you waiting for, rush forward, attack!

From that night onwards, all the gentry and relatives who could come up with a huge sum of 5 taels of silver hid at home and discussed secretly with the think tank.

Master Bu Daxing's deliberate action of handing over black materials not only failed shamefully again, but also helped the people who traveled through time.

Well, how do you say that?When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you.

From this moment on, a large part of those people in the court who cannot see through the future will fall into the abyss of passing through the crowd, wrong, it is a bright future.

Or it can be explained in a more fashionable way: what you focus on is the interest of others, and what they focus on is your principal.

……

On the third day after the court meeting was over, Emperor Chongzhen, who had been paying close attention to the development of the situation, found that the civil servants had indeed stopped talking about this matter, and no one wrote any more papers about Uncle Heizhong Yong. So in the afternoon of this day, the emperor happily summoned Cao Zhongchen - in the imperial garden.

When he heard Cao Mangfu's gift-giving words that day, he laughed and left with his hands behind his back, thus ending the court meeting.

Regarding Huangzhuang... Of course, the emperor doesn't care about Yizhou Huangzhuang. Well, Chongzhen is relatively poor, so he still cares more or less.But compared to the political gains he got at the court meeting that day, Huangzhuang is really nothing.