Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 181 Jiajing was ambitious, so he seized all the property of the rebels in Nanzhi!

After Zhu Houcong said this, he no longer mentioned Liang Yongfu, Marquis of Baoding.

He knew that Liang Yongfu and other Nanjing nobles must be dissatisfied with the court's new policies in Nanzhi.

But Zhu Houcong would not give up reform just because they were dissatisfied.

It is impossible for him to take into account the interests of all groups in his reforms.

"Now that the Nanzhi rebels have been eliminated, the next step is naturally to track down their accomplices. Those who should be seized should be seized, and those who should be arrested should be arrested!"

"but!"

"I think that since the original intention of the court is to reshape the currency system and increase the amount of money in the market, I think that we must confiscate the assets of these party members and use them as funds to reshape the currency system!"

"In order to prevent them from taking the opportunity to destroy the rebel property, such as burning gardens, calligraphy and paintings, and rare books, an imperial decree will be issued. If they can ensure that the rebel property is not lost or destroyed, except for the principal offender, the accomplices will be spared from death and only be exiled to Donglai!"

"If they fail to give their promise, not only will all nine clans be exterminated, but their bones will also be crushed and scattered, and they will not be buried in the soil of the Ming Dynasty!"

After Zhu Houcong finished speaking, he looked down at the court officials and said, "The Ministry of Justice should send this decree to all prefectures, counties and cities without delay!"

The Minister of Justice Lin Jun therefore bowed and agreed.

All the court officials knew that the emperor was eyeing the wealth of the large number of noble families in Jiangnan who had committed crimes, and intended to take this opportunity to increase taxes and obtain a large amount of additional silver through property confiscations.

The court officials all knew that these Jiangnan nobles who had committed crimes must have accumulated a lot of silver. Therefore, if this silver was really confiscated and put into the treasury, the emperor would not only have a strong army, but also abundant financial resources!
in this way……

The emperor can indeed further control the world's financial power!
The court officials had to admit that the emperor's move really grasped the lifeline of the offending nobles, forcing them not to destroy their own property in order to stop the court's plan to reshape the currency system.

After all, anyone who privately destroys family property will be crushed to ashes, while anyone who protects his property and honestly hands it over to the court can survive, so naturally one should choose the latter.

In this way, even if there are people who are extremely opposed to the court's new policies and want to do something radical that will destroy their property, they will be stopped by their families.

Zhu Houcong was on guard against the possibility that the offending nobles would destroy their property before their homes were searched and their crimes investigated, and he did so based on historical experience.

Because he remembered that in history, Zhou Yanru, the chief minister of the cabinet during the Chongzhen period, burned down his own pavilion where a large number of treasures were hidden in advance when Chongzhen sent people to search his house. This naturally made Chongzhen very angry.

Zhu Houcong naturally wanted to avoid this situation.

He indeed hoped to obtain a large amount of silver by confiscating the property of the Jiangnan gentry who had committed crimes, so as to speed up the process of regaining monetary power.

"Since the collapse of the Baochao, all industries in the world have gradually been able to use silver as money, supplemented by copper coins. However, both are insufficient for the common people and it is difficult to promote prosperity in the world. Moreover, the rich and powerful have used silver as a powerful weapon to seize national wealth and people's benefits."

"If we can really confiscate a lot of silver this time, then the money system can be rebuilt faster than expected. In addition to building the outer city of Beijing, we can also start preparing for the construction of a navy. The Western Barbarians frequently invade us at sea. Without a strong navy, I will be uneasy!"

Zhu Houcong also privately told Liang Chu about his plan to take this opportunity to obtain a large amount of silver and mint more silver dollars.

As a native of Guangdong, Liang Chu was also uneasy about the Western barbarians who had begun to invade Guangdong, so naturally he did not oppose the emperor's strengthening of the navy.

But what Liang Chu didn't know was that Zhu Houcong's strengthening of the navy to guard against the Western Barbarians was just an excuse!

His real purpose was to strengthen the navy and then send the navy out to mine gold and silver, further invigorate the domestic economy, expand foreign markets, and make the pie bigger.

To be honest, if he only carried out distribution-type reforms in the country, the struggles between different interest groups would be fierce, leading to more and more bloody conflicts. In fact, he himself was a little uneasy. He was also afraid that the reforms would eventually extend to his own court and people around him, which would eventually cause him to be blamed by people around him because of the distribution reforms.

of course.

Although Zhu Houcong had not yet developed new resources on a large scale, he had already begun to do so on a small scale.

At least……

He has begun to systematically exile criminals to the Jinguashi mine on Donglai Island to mine.

The Jinguashi Gold Mine is a famous mineral in modern history. It was the largest gold mine in Asia at that time when it was mined during the Japanese colonization of Taiwan after the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

This mine is rich in gold and brass. During the Japanese occupation, it produced about 50,000 taels of gold annually, with the highest annual output reaching 70,000 taels. During the Japanese colonial period, it provided Japan with a large amount of gold resources.

Zhu Houcong didn't know whether the mineral resources in the treasure island would be mined by foreigners in this life or in the future, but he knew that he had to take advantage of the ability and opportunity now to mine the mineral resources in these places for the benefit of his nation.

Moreover, another advantage of exploiting the resources of the treasure island now is that there is no need to worry about disturbing other people.

Because there is no armed regime other than the Ming Dynasty on the Treasure Island except the indigenous people and a small number of Han people who have migrated there, there is no need to worry about fierce military resistance when developing the Treasure Island, let alone disturbing the people and occupying their land.

And if the Ming Dynasty can also mine tens of thousands of taels of gold on the island annually, it will naturally have a great effect on promoting the economy.

to this end.

Zhu Houcong also specifically asked Liang Chu: "How is the gold mining in Donglai going? Are there any new people immigrating there?"

Liang Chu replied, "Your Majesty, the Donglai gold mine has mined more than 20,000 ounces of gold and more than 10,000 kilograms of brass. More than 700 new households have been relocated, and together with the households that were exiled, there are now more than 1,000 households."

Liang Chu did not expect that the offshore deserted island that had been ignored by the literati of this dynasty actually contained so many mineral resources.

This made him give up the idea of ​​pleading for the exiled scholars, and he only comforted the scholars and officials who were demoted to serve as officials by saying that as long as they did a good job, they would plead with the emperor to let them return to serve as officials.

"Speaking of Donglai, Fujian Governor Fan Jizu requested an imperial decree to change Donglai Prefecture into a prefecture, and to add prefectures, counties and garrisons. He said that the mining had attracted the attention of Portuguese, Japanese and pirates, and the court should take this as a warning."

Liang Chu replied. Zhu Houcong nodded and said, "How does the cabinet plan to draft it?"

"The cabinet followed his advice and changed Donglai Prefecture into a prefecture, with the prefectural seat moved to Jin County. A coastal defense guerrilla office and a defense 1,000-household unit were set up. The coastal defense guerrilla office was stationed in Jilong, and the defense 1,000-household unit was stationed in Penghu. A Fujian provincial governor was also sent to serve as the Donglai sub-inspector, who was responsible for inspecting the counties of Donglai and managing taxation, household registration, military affairs, construction, and grain storage."

Liang Chu replied.

After hearing this, Zhu Houcong said, "Very good!"

then.

Liang Chu handed over another letter saying, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Academy have discussed that the eldest daughter of Yao Shushan, the Confucian teacher of Wanping County in Shuntian Prefecture, will be made queen, and I request that Yao Shushan be appointed as the Minister of the Honglu Temple and his wife be given the imperial edict."

"Can!"

Although there was a delay due to the selection of a prince consort by the imperial sister, the selection of a concubine finally had a result by the end of the first year of the Jiajing reign.

Since Zhu Houcong asked Yuan Zonggao to carefully select for him in private, the empress who was naturally confirmed was not the Queen Chen in history who dared to get jealous and smash a cup in front of Jiajing, but a woman from the Yao family who was chosen by the two Empress Dowagers according to his wishes from among the women recommended by Yuan Zonggao.

This woman named Yao was also the one who impressed Zhu Houcong the most when he saw the portrait presented by Yuan Zonggao.

Other women recommended by Yuan Zonggao were also chosen as concubines.

But perhaps it was because Empress Chen in history was indeed stunningly beautiful, so she was still selected and became one of the nine concubines.

Conferring the title of Empress Dowager means that the emperor's wedding is approaching.

The next day, the Ministry of Rites submitted the six etiquettes for the wedding.

Zhu Houcong naturally approved it.

However, since it involves the six rituals of a grand wedding, it is naturally very complicated. According to the date set by the Ministry of Rites, the wedding and the ceremony of enthroning the Empress could not be completed until the end of the first month of the second year of the Jiajing reign.

Let’s talk.

Zhang Wei and other Yanshan Guard officers and generals were naturally very excited after receiving Zhu Houcong's order that they should "rather be implicated than let the rebels go."

Because they knew that the emperor was indeed interested in this and wanted to intensify the attack.

Zhang Wei summoned all the officers and generals of Yanshan Guard and ordered: "Immediately confiscate the suspected treasonous nobles under control! The heads of their families should strictly investigate their accomplices and arrest them one by one. We must catch them all in one fell swoop!"

"Yes!"

then.

All the officials and generals who had been divided into teams in advance and were to be sent to confiscate the property all nodded in agreement and then took action separately.

However, after learning that Ouyang Yu and other anti-traitor troops were defeated by the government troops and many of them were captured by the government troops, the nobles who participated in the rebellion became extremely anxious and tried various ways to avoid punishment.

Not only them, but also the gentry from their hometown who did not participate in this incident, were worried that these gentry from their hometown would be hit too hard and affect the literary fortunes of the entire hometown.

Gu Qing, who retired as the Minister of Rites, even came to Wang Ao a long time ago and knelt down to apologize to him, saying, "Sir, the Songjiang nobles are guilty and have failed to live up to the friendship of the same province. They should not have done such a thing to let down the Suzhou nobles. I am here to apologize to the Suzhou nobles on their behalf. I only ask you to be magnanimous for once, considering that the power of the entire Nanzhi nobles should not be greatly weakened because of this, and forgive those Songjiang nobles who are plotting rebellion. Please ask Your Majesty for mercy! Woo woo!"

"What's the point of apologizing now?"

"The elder is the teacher of the late emperor, not the teacher of the current emperor."

"When you Songjiang nobles were thinking about dealing with the Zhu family, why didn't you think about the friendship between us? Don't you understand that if you do this, the emperor will blame us, the Suzhou nobles?"

Qin Jin spoke first in an unpleasant tone.

Gu Qingze said: "What Fengshan blamed me for was that I had advised these fellow countrymen before to stop fighting against the imperial court, but many of them didn't listen!"

Gu Qing was also very helpless when he said this: "Although everyone is from a family of scholars and scholars, there are still many who cannot be indifferent to fame and gain. They are easily blinded by the immediate benefits. In order to pay less taxes or even no taxes, they don't care about any consequences. Even if they can't get rid of Zhu Kunshan himself, they will destroy Zhu Kunshan's entire family!"

"But no matter what, they are the descendants of the Nanzhi nobles! If we don't protect them, then Nanzhi can't just rely on the Suzhou nobles and the few remaining nobles like us and those poor scholars to compete for the positions of ministers in the court, right?"

When Gu Qing said this, he looked at Wang Ao and kowtowed again: "Lord! You are a man of high moral character and prestige throughout the world. You were the teacher of the previous emperor just like Yang Tinghe. Later, you retired because you did not support Liu Jin. Your integrity has long been known throughout the world. His Majesty has sent people to comfort you several times. Now, only you can come forward to ask for a little mercy for our Nanzhi gentry!"

"Shi Lian, you get up first!"

At this time, Wang Ao stretched out his hand and raised it upwards.

Gu Qing just stood up.

"sit down!"

Wang Ao then said another sentence.

Gu Qing thanked him and sat on a chair to the right of Wang Ao. He only sat halfway and still said worriedly, "Everyone knows that the emperor wants to control the money power of the world, so he made silver coins and copper coins, and recently issued an edict to measure in yuan and jiao. This means that the emperor wants more gold and silver, so he adjusted the discount ratio and returned the fire consumption to the public. At the same time, he did not hesitate to unite farmers and workers, and refused to compromise. He also defined the crying temple as a rebellion, just to get more gold and silver from Jiangnan."

"The emperor accumulates wealth for the country, but it is my destiny in Nanzhi that is impoverished! Lord!"

Gu Qing said one more sentence and then looked at Wang Ao.

(End of this chapter)