Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 124: The monk was betrayed by the civil servants, and the southern nobles set traps for each other
Monk Yuanyin looked at the two civil servants, Deng Jiceng and Shen Zhuo, and the Jinyiwei behind them with a confused look on his face.

The Jinyiwei immediately came over and pressed the monk Yuanyin on the table.

Yuanyin did not struggle, but continued to look at Deng Jiceng and Shen Zhuo, with confusion still in her eyes.

"Why are you doing this?"

Yuanyin finally couldn't help but ask this question.

The two ignored him.

Yuanyin was then taken to the Ministry of Justice and temporarily detained in the prison.

The Minister of Punishments, Lin Jun, was an old official who had entered the government during the Chenghua period. Although he was a proponent of ritual, he was upright and cautious, so he sent his most trusted person to look after Yuanyin.

of course.

Zhu Houcong was not worried that Yuanyin would make mistakes in the Ministry of Justice.

After all, Bian Xian had been demoted to Liaodong by him.

If Lin Jun doesn't want to be severely demoted and have his nine clans pay compensation for grain, he must be more careful in guarding Yuanyin.

After Yuanyin was arrested, the mastermind behind the burning of grain, the old monk Fahui, was indeed shocked.

But Monk Fahui was not angry. He just sighed and said:

"The Royal Guards should not be underestimated!"

"That's right!"

"Now that I think about it, the Jinyiwei must have known that we would make this all look like heavenly fire, so they had long been preparing to put the blame directly on the Jiangnan scholars, making it impossible for the Jiangnan officials in the court to admit that this was heavenly fire."

Said Li Zhaohe, a close friend of Monk Fahui and a political broker.

Monk Fahui said, "We should have sent more people to kill all the Jinyiwei who were helping to guard the warehouse! Then we wouldn't have ended up like this."

Li Zhaohe said: "If there are too many people, it will alert the factory guards and even the military department in advance!"

"makes sense!"

"But now that Yuanyin has been arrested, it's still a cause for concern!"

Monk Fahui frowned.

Li Zhaohe nodded: "Let's wait and see, maybe there will be a turnaround. After all, we have prepared a way out."

After hearing this, Monk Fahui just sighed: "It is really unfortunate for our Buddhist sect to have encountered such a powerful emperor. He actually thought of making a fuss about money!"

"It's not just you Buddhists who are unlucky."

"We, the dignitaries in the capital, are also troubled by this. He is very good at using the common people to make trouble, and he has cleared our eyes and ears in the inner court. He is also very good at dividing the literati, secretly reporting on the system, and elevating the status of military officials."

"It can be said."

"Although this emperor is not as rebellious as the previous emperor, he is more scheming than the previous emperor. The main thing is that he seems to have regarded the powerful officials and gentry in the world as villains and is on guard against them! He appears to be kind on the surface, but in fact he is smiling with a knife in his heart!"

"Unlike the previous emperor, although he was rebellious, his heart was pure and he was kind to the powerful officials in the court."

Li Zhaohe said.

Fahui nodded and asked again: "What can the emperor of today believe in?"

"Who knows?"

"He says he is a firm believer in Neo-Confucianism, but I don't see him rejecting people who study the mind!"

"As for Buddhism and Taoism, he has not yet said that he wants to build a Buddhist temple or a Taoist temple."

Li Zhaohe replied.

Monk Fahui frowned even more tightly after hearing this.

Saying.

After asking Wang An questions, Zhu Houcong asked Wang An to leave first.

After Wang An left, Zhu Houcong said to Liang Chu: "Although the grain has been burned, new money still needs to be minted. In order to improve the enthusiasm of the craftsmen, the service system for the craftsmen on duty should be changed to a combination of the employment system and the silver system for the craftsmen on duty."

"If they are willing to accept the court's employment and work for the court, then the amount of labor they should have performed in shifts for the court will be changed into personal exemption tax and converted into their wages."

"Of course!"

"If they are unwilling to accept employment from the court and only want to earn money by taking jobs outside, then we can collect their silver for each job and use it as a reward for those who perform well among the employees."

"Your Majesty, this is a good idea."

"Since the craftsmen on duty still cannot exchange silver for labor service, they often cut corners and produce shoddy products when manufacturing for the court. Now they can be paid and can also get more rewards based on their performance, which will naturally improve the quality of the products they cast."

"But this will increase the court's expenses."

"After all, the employment system requires wages, and the minting of coins and even firearms by the imperial court is not a small-scale casting, so even if the wages are slightly higher than those of regular workers in ordinary workshops, it is still a considerable expense."

"At present, the annual revenue of the imperial court has not increased significantly, but the salt tax revenue has just increased."

"So, any increase in spending needs to be done with caution."

Liang Chu first affirmed Zhu Houcong's reform ideas, but then raised some questions.

Zhu Houcong said after hearing this: "We must be cautious, but we should increase this expenditure first. When we need to increase other expenditures later, we can consider how to increase annual revenue first."

Liang Chu agreed.

Zhu Houcong added: "It is not only necessary to change to a hiring system and establish a silver reward system, but also to grant favors to craftsmen who have made significant achievements in the research and development of new skills and the manufacture of new equipment."

"Of course, this is a later story."

"When you mint coins now, don't make them too good. Everything should be practical, not just for decoration."

"So, whether it's a silver dollar or a copper coin, the silver and copper content should be just right. If it's one cent less, it's easy to spot that it's a low-quality coin."

"This will help to prevent desperate people from making inferior coins instead of good ones."

"As the saying goes, highbrow music is appreciated by few. Money is just like people."

"It's so beautiful that it's hard to circulate."

After Zhu Houcong said this, Liang Chu was naturally full of admiration. He did not expect that the emperor would be so clear about money law.

Then, Zhu Houcong said: "Whether the money system can be successfully reshaped now depends on the situation of Huguang and Nanzhi purchasing grain and cloth."

"Your Majesty is right. The Cabinet has sent an urgent letter to inquire about it."

Liang Chu replied.

"That's good."

Let’s talk.

After Jia Yong arrived in Jiangnan, he immediately made an appointment to meet with a group of retired officials and gentry from Jiangnan whom he had met in the Hanlin Academy in the past.

"I came to Nandu this time for no other reason than to do one thing, which is to purchase three million rolls of cotton cloth."

Jia Yong knew that he could not hide his visit to Nanzhi and the large-scale purchase of cotton cloth from others, and he could not complete such a big deal quietly.

What's more, Jiangnan is not his home ground, and now it is not even the court's home ground.

So, Jia Yong simply made his purpose clear.

The cotton cloth industry has always been well developed in the south of the Yangtze River. It has developed to the point where every town and city has cotton cloth industries, especially in the Songjiang area, which has been known as the "clothing the world". As a result, the cotton cloth here is in such abundance that it is in short supply.

When Jia Yong mentioned that he wanted to buy three million pieces of cotton cloth, the eyes of these Jiangnan officials and gentry suddenly lit up.

"Why are you buying so much cotton cloth?"

Lu Sheng, the former director of the Imperial College, couldn't help but ask.

Jia Yong smiled and said, "Of course, I was ordered to purchase cotton cloth for the soldiers in the nine frontiers to make winter clothes."

Although Jia Yong knew that these people would guess what the cotton cloth would be purchased for, he still lied.

He told this lie not to deceive these people, but to give them a reason to deceive themselves when it came to their own interests.

"As long as your village is willing to sell me three million pieces of cotton cloth at 80% of the market price, I will exchange it for cash first. As for why it is 80%, it is because 20% will be used for travel expenses. After all, the canal has not yet thawed, and the transportation cost is very high!"

"But! Buying three million rolls of cotton cloth at once, even if it's only 80%, it must be a good deal, right?"

After Jia Yong asked this, all the officials and gentry just smiled and said that a gentleman should not be obsessed with money and only focus on drinking and writing poetry. What's the point of talking about these things?

But Jia Yong knew that these people were just pretending to be reserved and would come to find him after the party was over.

"Grandpa!"

"We can't sell cotton cloth to Master Jia."

"It's said to be military supplies, but it's obviously to pave the way for the court's next monetary reform!"

After accompanying his grandfather to meet Jia Yong, the student Xu Jie also expressed his opinions to his grandfather, Gu Qing, the right vice minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites.

Gu Qingze said: "The profit of three million pieces of cotton cloth is not something we can stop! We must sell it, and we must sell it at the highest discount possible, as long as Master Jia is willing to sell more of our Huating cotton cloth!"

"master!"

"Lu Siye of Shanghai has invited Master Jia to his garden!"

Just then, the Gu family servant came over.

Gu Qing got anxious after hearing this: "I said, we are anxious, but others will be more anxious than us. If such a huge profit is taken by Shanghai, how can I face the people of Huating!"

"Grandfather, what about us southern nobles uniting to fight against the imperial court's reform of the money system?"

Xu Jie, who was only nineteen years old at the moment, still had a relatively innocent mind, just like when he first became an official in history, he dared to confront Zhang Fujing. So he asked this question at this time.

"It's okay. We are just selling cotton cloth to the court for the soldiers in the nine border areas to make winter clothes. As long as Huguang doesn't sell grain to the court, it's fine!"

Gu Qing said as he ordered, "Hurry up and invite Master Jia to come!"

Huguang.

Wuchang Mansion.

Here, Xi Shu also expressed his purpose of purchasing grain to the local gentry in Huguang.

Sun Yuan, a landlord from Huguang, also asked his relative-in-law Wang Cheng, "Do you want to sell your grain?"

"Of course I want to sell it!"

Wang Cheng said.

Sun Yuan said: "Didn't we agree to work together with the Southern Zhili side to oppose the imperial court's reform, and ask the court to either forgive the ministers who have surrendered, or not reform the system?"

"As long as Nanzhi doesn't sell cotton cloth, it doesn't matter if we sell some grain."

"The Nanzhi government is not buying grain this year, so last year's grain has been sitting there. It costs a lot to protect it from mold, fire and rodents. It's rare that the court is willing to spend two million taels to buy grain this time. If we miss this opportunity, we'll miss it."

Wang Cheng said.

Sun Yuan said: "That's right! Anyway, it will be sold to the soldiers of the Nine Frontiers for use."

Although the officials and gentry in Jiangnan and Huguang knew that selling so much cloth and grain was tantamount to selling the ropes to trap themselves, in the face of such huge profits, they still chose to fall into the trap and chose to believe the lie told by Jia Yong and Xi Shu and use it to convince themselves.

While Jia Yong and Xi Shu were purchasing large quantities of cotton cloth and grain on behalf of the court in Nanzhi and Huguang respectively, in the capital, the three judges officially began to hear the case of the burning of the newly arrived grain in Nanxin Warehouse.

On the day when the case was heard by the three judicial officials.

Qin Wen, the governor of the Eastern Depot, and Wang Jingdu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, came to the scene to supervise the trial.

After Yuanyin was brought in, the Minister of Justice Lin Jun asked her, "Why did you know there would be a fire on the night of the Lantern Festival the day before?"

"The Royal Guards told me."

"It was the Imperial Guards who asked me to spread the word among the officials I knew in the court."

Yuanyin suddenly replied.

After hearing this, Wang Jing, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, stood up on the spot and looked at Yuanyin in shock.

Qin Wen, the governor of the Eastern Depot, also felt a pang in his heart.

Minister of Justice Lin Jun, Left Censor-in-Chief Wang Zun, and Dali Temple Minister Jiang Sheng were all startled, and then they all raised the corners of their mouths slightly.

For them, it would be great if this matter was really related to the Jinyiwei themselves.

The urticaria has recurred, so the update is a little late
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(End of this chapter)