Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 288 The Yellow River changes its course and civil engineering flourishes!
Huguang, Huarong.

During this autumn harvest time, after a year of hard work, people finally see a good harvest, and everyone has a happy smile on their face.

Every household had harvested grass, and the grain gradually dried under the sun and moon. From time to time, some early-ripening husks made noises, breaking out the grains inside.

Hearing the subtle sound, the old farmer immediately smiled. In a few days, he would be able to exchange it for money. The family's food and drink depended on the harvest.

In a good year, if there is no extravagance and no natural or man-made disasters, everyone will have enough food and drink.

But at night, there still has to be someone to guard the pasture, and the young and old men in the family will sleep here.

Even if there is a little breeze, it won't have much effect in this hot summer.

The grasslands are always adjacent to each other, and they are all old acquaintances. People who can't sleep, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans, gather in groups of three or four to chat and laugh.

The most talked about issue was the imperial court's survey of land and equal distribution of land to the people. Although the national policy had not yet been implemented to this point, the impact had already been felt.

Fields are the foundation of the people.

In the prefecture and county, the gentry and wealthy families were selling land on a large scale. In the beginning, they cheated many people. But as the national policy became known, they realized that they had cheated the people and wanted to return the land.

The gentry and wealthy families were absolutely unwilling to do so. They relied on their evil slaves and servants to beat and scold the deceived people.

The arm cannot prevail against the thigh. The common people who have been cheated and lost their fortunes cannot prevail against the gentry and the wealthy. Similarly, the gentry and the wealthy cannot prevail against the government and the yamen.

In the 40th and 41st years of the Jiajing reign, there was a purge that lasted for a year and a half. Even if all the central and local officials of the Ming Dynasty were not replaced, they were almost replaced.

Some were promoted, some were dismissed, some were transferred, some were exiled, and the most were killed.

In the entire imperial court system, the greatest impact was on the officials at the county level, who were almost all replaced by the newly selected scholars.

These new officials and clerks, who have not experienced the dye vat of officialdom, do not quite understand the unspoken rules of officialdom, and their passion for serving the people has not yet cooled.

The "three fires" he started after taking office made the gentry and wealthy families in the two capitals and thirteen provinces suffer terribly.

Affected by the fact that the court now employs people in a way that promotes the capable and demotes the mediocre, and that special promotions have become the norm, a large number of new officials have greatly reduced their desire to make money.

Instead, they had an infinite desire for "progress" and some even went so far as to treat the wealthy and powerful families under their rule as their money bags and withdraw money at will.

Then, he would take the money from the gentry and wealthy families, work for the people, increase his political achievements, and wait for promotion.

As for whether the gentry and wealthy families are willing or not, that is not important. In the Ming Dynasty, there is nothing that can challenge power.

If there is, it can only be power itself.

The gentry and wealthy families were willing to contribute money to develop civil affairs, and the new officials were also willing to reciprocate by being credited with their merits and awarded with plaques such as "A Family of Rich and Benevolent People".

The gentry and wealthy families were unwilling to pay, and were unkind in their wealth. Although the new officials were not very familiar with the exercise of power, they knew how to make trouble for them with just a little thinking.

The two shifts of yamen runners worked day and night. During the day, they would visit the shops owned by the gentry and wealthy families, staring viciously at anyone who dared to enter the shops to buy things until they drove the person away, leaving the shops deserted.

At night, those shops would be robbed by "thugs". The better thugs would just rob the things and leave, while the more vicious ones would set fire before leaving, burning everything to ashes.

The next day, when the gentry and wealthy families went to the government office to file a complaint, these marquises of a prefecture or a county would nonchalantly tell them to go back and wait.

When the gentry and wealthy families agree to contribute money to develop civil affairs, the strong men will be found, and the things will be found. Whether there is anything missing, only God knows.

Punish the strong?

Of course they must be punished. These are the achievements of the new officials. How can they not be punished?

It must be a serious crime!
All will be executed!

But who were the strong men they found? They were all prisoners in prison who were already waiting to be executed.

The former chief minister of the cabinet, Zhang Juzheng, wrote a letter to stipulate the annual quota of number of people to be executed in each province, prefecture and county, and is still praised by prefects and county magistrates.

It’s really useful!
As for the wealthy and powerful people who were concerned about how the death row prisoners got out of prison and how they robbed and burned down shops, the prefect and county magistrates had a simple answer: Aren't people allowed to escape from prison?

After escaping from prison, you must have some money to travel, right? It's reasonable to rob some things from the rich, right?
The logical loop was closed, and the prefects and county magistrates began to kill people. According to the Ming Dynasty law, if a death row prisoner who was detained and awaiting execution committed a serious crime such as escaping from prison, the case could be reported to the higher authorities and he would be executed immediately.

Gao Gong, the current chief minister of the cabinet, was already very dissatisfied with the detention of death row prisoners awaiting execution and the waste of money and grain. Naturally, he was happy about the "reduction in the number of death row prisoners" in various provinces and counties.

So the death row prisoner was beheaded.

The gentry and wealthy families lost money.

The prefects and county magistrates were rewarded with political achievements and money and grain for developing civil affairs. Once the people's power increased, promotion would come naturally.

When Zhang Juzheng was in office, prefects and county magistrates did not dare to do so on a large scale. But as soon as Gao Gong took office, it can be said that they let things go completely.

Gao Gong's cabinet and the imperial court, within two months of the end of Zhang Juzheng's cabinet, the provincial governments and counties accepted donations from local gentry and wealthy families, which amounted to hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

Shocked the whole world.

Gao Gong's method of promoting officials based only on their political achievements and the support of the people also caused a lot of criticism within the court and the public.

The Ministry of Personnel, which was headed by Hu Zongxian, the second-in-command of the Cabinet, and the three judicial departments of the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Supreme Court, all expressed strong dissatisfaction with Gao Gong.

Questioning Gao Gong's behavior was tantamount to undermining some of the systems of Zhang Juzheng's cabinet, but Gao Gong didn't care at all.

Especially when the memorials impeaching Gao Gong by some upright court officials were sent to Yuxi Palace and were "drowned" like a drop in the ocean, Gao Gong no longer cared.

In order to deal with the court officials, Gao Gong picked up a few officials who had obtained money and food from the gentry and wealthy families and put them into their own pockets and killed them, thus making the civil and military officials look decent, and that was the end of the matter.

No matter how disgraceful it is, as the chief minister of the cabinet, I have to help the other ministers to be respectable.

The Ministry of Personnel is not under my control, but the Ministry of Revenue is. Which government office doesn't need money for expenses?
Therefore, countless gentry and wealthy families in the Ming Dynasty disappeared, and money and grain were first collected by the court and then distributed among the people.

With the support of the prime minister, the prefects and county magistrates had no psychological pressure to order the gentry and wealthy families under their jurisdiction to return the money that had been defrauded from the people and win the hearts of the people.

The people, who had gained tangible benefits in all aspects, would often mention the county magistrate and the local officials when chatting, and they would praise them endlessly.

They were completely unaware that it was the gentry and the wealthy who were carrying the heavy burdens forward.

The two shifts of yamen runners in the local government who received salary from the gentry and wealthy families for several months, even years or decades, did not care whether they slept or not. They were afraid that there would be a fire or something that would affect the people's harvest or the county magistrate's political achievements, so they patrolled the countryside.

Hearing the people's heartfelt praise, they immediately sent someone back to report to the county magistrate. These words of praise were all stepping stones for the county magistrate's progress. Both the officials and the people were delighted.

A corner of the grassland.

"I heard that the county government is recruiting people. Once the grain is exchanged for money, do you want to give it a try?"

"Do you give me money? Do you provide me with food?"

"They provide food and pay a lot. You get 20 yuan for a day's work."

"So many? What kind of work?"

"Dig ditches, build community schools, and repair roads!"

"These are all good things. How could those officials who peeled skin and drank blood be so kind?"

"That was the official in the past. Which official nowadays is not good? When you bought the land from Mr. Wang, didn't the county magistrate enforce justice and force Mr. Wang to return the money to you? If it weren't for the county magistrate, your money would be gone!"

"That's right. If the current county magistrate is recruiting people for work, then it must be true. Let's give it a try."

"Alas, I heard that in order to build a highway, half of the people in the neighboring Zhangjia Village will be relocated. The county gave each household fifty taels of silver, which is enough to build a large building. The county also said that new houses will be built, and when they are completed, those who have relocated can move in without paying a penny."

"Isn't this possible?"

"How is it impossible? My grandmother's sister's grandson's daughter-in-law's sister married in Zhangjia Village. They failed to occupy their house for the road construction, but the family next door did. They were just a little bit away. They slapped their thighs at home every day."

"Really?"

"of course it's true."

"I do not believe."

"Hey, you are envious, aren't you? After we sell the grain, we will go to the county to work and cross the bridge of Zhangjia Village. You can go down and ask then."

"I don't believe it!"

As they were talking, one of them broke down, totally unaware of the other person's laughter, even though he had already broken down before.

When it comes to envy, jealousy and hatred, you can’t just be alone, of course you have to involve your “good brothers” in it too.

One hundred thousand community schools.

Twenty-five thousand miles of straight road.

These two things were the national policies of the court. The Ministry of Works deployed countless manpower to explore and plan roads across the country. After more than eight months of hard work, the locations of community schools, straight roads, the two capitals and fourteen provinces (including Beiyuan Province) were basically all determined.

It just so happened that the provinces, prefectures and counties had money, so without waiting for the Ministry of Revenue of the imperial court to calculate the exact cost of construction, the county magistrates, prefects and governors reported it one by one, and there was no need for the Ministry of Revenue to allocate money for the time being, as the local governments could solve the problem themselves.

In addition to the two national policies, provincial governments and counties also suggested that the court reorganize local rivers and water conservancy projects.

In particular, the governor of Henan, after having money and grain, became so arrogant that he wanted to change the course of the Yellow River.

Before this, the Yellow River had changed its course five times. The first change occurred during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. This change changed the direction of the lower reaches of the Yellow River from the original northeast to the southeast, passing through Henan and Shandong, and finally flowing into the Bohai Sea. This change of course remained fixed for more than a thousand years.

The second diversion occurred during the reign of Wang Mang in the Western Han Dynasty. This diversion was caused by the Yellow River bursting in Daming County, Hebei, causing the river to deviate to the southeast, passing through Liaocheng, Shandong, and finally entering the Bohai Sea in Binzhou, Shandong. This river course is also known as the Old Course of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The third diversion occurred during the Northern Song Dynasty. This diversion was due to the Yellow River bursting near Puyang and flowing northward, mainly through Daming and Guantao in Hebei, Leling and Wudi County in Shandong, and into the Bohai Sea. However, there were also brief changes in the river course during this period, and this river course is called the Northern Song Dynasty Old Course.

The fourth diversion occurred during the Southern Song Dynasty. This diversion occurred because in order to resist the southward advance of the Jin army, the Southern Song Dynasty artificially breached the dam in Hua County, causing the Yellow River to flow southward into the Yellow Sea, and the river was divided into two channels, the south flowing through the Jingning Sishui and the Huai River into the Yellow Sea, and the north flowing through the Daqing River into the Bohai Sea, collectively known as the Old Course of the Southern Song Dynasty.

The fifth course change occurred in this dynasty. This course change was mainly due to the fact that the Yellow River carried a large amount of silt, which caused the riverbed to rise. Eventually, it diverted the Si River into the Huai River in Jiangsu, forming a new Yellow River Delta.

However, as a result, four major breaches of the Yellow River occurred during this dynasty: in the 24th year of Hongwu, the 13th year of Zhengtong, the 2nd year of Hongzhi, and the 23rd year of Jiajing.

Pan Jixun, the governor of Henan Province, had a good understanding of water conservancy. After numerous surveys, he personally drew up the sixth major diversion of the Yellow River in ancient and modern times.

Since the Yellow River often bursts its banks in Lankao County, Pan Jixun believed that they should go northeast to seize the Daqing River in Shandong to enter the Bohai Sea.

In this way, three major breaches in the north of the Yellow River, eight major breaches in the south, and more than 40 other small breaches can be solved.

The main river is more than 80 miles long, and the dike is more than 30,000 feet long.

Such a project would require enormous manpower and material resources. Pan Jixun estimated that at least 100,000 civilian workers and 10 million taels of silver would be needed.

The estimate of the Ministry of Works of the imperial court directly doubled on this basis. Due to the two national policies of community schools and straight roads, there was a huge shortage of staff in the Ministry of Works. The Minister of Works Zhu Heng immediately rejected Pan Jixun's "delusion".

Without the support of the Ministry of Works, Pan Jixun planned to do it on his own. Anyway, he didn't need the court to allocate silver and grain, and the governor was in charge of local affairs and had the power to make decisions to save trouble.

However, this involves huge risks. If the route is changed successfully, it will surely be a great achievement and immeasurable merit.

But if the diversion fails, the water of the Yellow River will flood the fields and submerge the people. According to the current holy law, Pan Jixun alone would not be worthy of being beheaded.

A huge gamble took place in Henan Province.

Building schools, straightening roads and changing river courses were three tasks that were carried out simultaneously, recruiting more than one million migrant workers. In Henan, there were many poor people and there was money to be made, so countless people went to work.

The entire Ming Dynasty presented a scene of thriving vitality and flourishing development.

An old man was awakened by a young man and immediately cursed: "Where are the howling ghosts! Go to sleep!"

The young man shrank his head, then lay down in the haystack, looked up at the starry sky, and slowly fell asleep.

The old man couldn't sleep, so he lit up his pipe and smoked it, with a look of both joy and worry on his wrinkled face.

Such good days make people quickly forget the hardships of the past few decades. How long can they last?
The current emperor is an old emperor. The Jiajing reign has lasted for forty-one years!

Just as he was thinking about it, the old man heard the sound of horses running. He looked in the direction of the sound. The gorgeous brocade clothes were shining even under the bright moon, which made his eyes hurt.

The leading Jinyiwei felt something and looked in the direction of the old man, who lowered his head.

Only after the sound disappeared did the old man raise his head again and murmured, "That direction seems to be the Liu family..."

(End of this chapter)