I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 154: Killing a Group of Big Pigs ( words, Happy New Year to Everyone)
The wealthy families and gentry in Jiangnan regarded Xu Jie, the second assistant of the cabinet, as their main backer. Xu Jie regarded Prince Yu as his main backer.

The younger brother of Prince Yu's favorite concubine sent out invitations to a banquet in Hangzhou City, and those wealthy and powerful gentry naturally came eagerly to attend the banquet.

Lin Shisan made a rough estimate that it would take at least a month for the more than 200 "guests" to gather in Hangzhou from all over Jiangnan.

During this month, Lin Shisan did his homework.

The Nanjing Jinyiwei had a huge archive.

The Jiazi File Room stores confidential files of officials in office in Jiangnan.

The "Yi" number stores the secret files of the descendants of the founding heroes who have lived in Nanjing for a long time.

The No. C file room stores the secret files of the Jiangnan noble families.

Lin Shisan specially sent someone to Nanjing to retrieve the secret files of the big family for careful review.

I don’t know, I’m scared.

Lin Shisan held up a secret file and said to Zhang Bo, "The Sun family of Qingtian, Chuzhou, eastern Zhejiang, started to serve as officials since the Song Dynasty. They survived the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties."

"During the reign of our great grandfather, the head of the Sun family was killed. The Sun family unexpectedly came back to life during the Zhengtong reign."

"Since the Zhengtong period, the Sun family has produced one minister, two vice ministers, one governor, two censors, and more than a dozen prefects and county magistrates."

"Now there is a member of the Sun family working as the Right Censor-in-Chief in the Metropolitan Censorate."

Zhang Bo said: "These Jiangnan big families are all like this, serving as officials for generations. No matter which dynasty changes, they still grab money with their left hand and power with their right hand."

“I have to admire them!”

"Oh, by the way, you said that the Sun family is from Qingtian County, Chuzhou, in eastern Zhejiang? Are they from the same hometown as Liu Ji, the founding Earl of Sincerity?"

Lin Shisan nodded, "That's right. The secret files record that during the Hongwu Dynasty, the head of the Sun family secretly communicated with the retired Liu Ji and reported his movements to the court from time to time. This displeased the great ancestor, so he killed him."

Zhang Bo asked: "Oh, the people praised Liu Bowen as the most meritorious minister of Taizu's founding. Do you know why Taizu only gave him the title of Earl when conferring titles, and decisively abandoned him four years after the founding of the country?"

Lin Shisan said: "Master, please teach me."

Uncle Zhang told the story slowly.

When Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang started his rebellion in Haozhou, he was surrounded by Li Shanchang, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun. These civil officials and military generals were called the "Huaixi Party" after the founding of the country.

To fight for the world, it is not enough to have soldiers, you also need food and money.

The money and grain in Jiangnan are controlled by those "thousand-year-old families" and the gentry and wealthy families.

Taizu had no choice but to make a temporary alliance with the gentry and nobles and give them official positions. These people were called the "Zhedong Party" after the founding of the country.

The leader of the Zhejiang East Party was Liu Ji, also known as Liu Bowen.

After the founding of the country, Taizu discovered with alarm that the party members in eastern Zhejiang always protected the interests of the gentry and often used their distorted interpretation of the theories of Confucius and Mencius to pressure the emperor in the court.

The Zhejiang East Party even played word games, which they were good at, in government documents, pretending to obey but actually disobeying them.

After the founding of the country, there were many vacancies for local officials, and Taizu needed to recruit people.

Officials in every dynasty were scholars. The Zhejiang East Party controlled the cultural heritage of Jiangnan. Naturally, most local official positions were controlled by the students and old friends of the Zhejiang East Party.

This group of people formed a huge community of interests and advanced and retreated together.

Taizu discovered a terrible fact: As the emperor, we don't have the final say in world affairs. Those sour scholars have the final say!
How decisive was Taizu in killing? After figuring out what was going on, he abandoned Liu Bowen and Song Lian and suppressed the Zhejiang East Party.

Later, he launched three major cases and killed several officials across the country.

However, after Taizu passed away, the successor Emperor Jianwen was weak and honest, and he was easily influenced. He soon began to favor Jiangnan literati, such as Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai, and Fang Xiaoru.

The power of the Jiangnan clans is rising again.

After the Jingnan Campaign, although Emperor Chengzu killed the three favorite ministers of Emperor Jianwen, he still came to power by illegitimate means and could not continue to massacre all the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

After all, he is not Huang Chao.

So Emperor Chengzu reached a tacit agreement with the Jiangnan clans. The clans nominally submitted to Emperor Chengzu, while Emperor Chengzu "co-ruled the world" with them on the surface.
The history from the Hongwu Dynasty to the Jiajing Dynasty is simply a history of struggle between the emperor and the great families in the south of the Yangtze River.

Zhang Bo talked for a long time and drank a sip of tea: "The Zhou Dynasty lasted no more than 800 years. From the founding of the country by Taizu to now, it has been 182 years."

"I'm going to say something disrespectful. If the Ming Dynasty had the same lifespan as the Zhou Dynasty, and the dynasty had changed more than 600 years later, these Jiangnan clans would still be able to prosper and flourish."

"These people are like indestructible bugs, parasitizing the skinny people for generations."

"You are extorting money from them on behalf of the emperor, so don't think you can kill them all. It would be great if you can get them to give you even 10% or 50% of their wealth."

Lin Shisan said: "Master, what you said is absolutely right. I understand everything."

Zhang Bo added: "To kill a snake, you must hit it at its weakest point. To capture a thief, you must first capture the leader. Among the 'guests' that Li Gao invited, the Xu family from Songjiang was the most prominent. Xu Jie's eldest son, Xu Fan, once served as the Minister of Rites, and now he is at home guarding the business."

"If we can get Xu Fan to cough up the silver, I'm not afraid that those big families won't cut in."

Lin Shisan took out the secret files about Xu Fan and said, "Master, please take a look at them. They are shocking."

Zhang Bo frowned after seeing this: "It turns out that he is the biggest smuggler of cotton cloth in Songjiang."

Lin Shisan said, "No wonder his father opposed opening the border and the sea, and ordered a bunch of his students to hinder the anti-Japanese war! If the Japanese threat was quelled, how could his family make a fortune from smuggling cotton cloth?"

Zhang Bo said, "Almost all the big families in Jiangnan are colluding with the Japanese pirates and doing smuggling business. This is not surprising. I understand. Do you want to use the word 'collaboration with the Japanese pirates' to force them to submit?"

Lin Shisan said with a smile: "To force them to submit, besides the two words 'collaborating with the Japanese', there are two other words."

Zhang Bo understood: "The other two characters are 'Prince Yu'."

After Wang Zhi was killed, his adopted son Mao Haifeng fled back to Japan. Soon after, the news of Wang Zhi's killing also reached Japan.

Mao Haifeng was unable to suppress Wang Zhi's original followers, who immediately split into more than twenty factions.

Within a month, just as Wang Zhi had said, conflicts broke out in the southeast. Hu Zongxian was so worried that he looked like a paperhanger in the southeast.

Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou also became "firefighters", running around and fighting in the southeast.

A month later, the city of Hangzhou became bustling.

Big families from all over Jiangnan moved into the city one after another.

The Japanese invasion was rampant, and the southeast was in turmoil. Even Lin Shisan had to go through two bloody battles the last time he went south on business. However, these wealthy families and gentry arrived in Hangzhou safely. It would be strange if there was no trick.

On the eighth day of the eleventh month of the thirty-sixth year of the Jiajing reign, in the rear court of the Governor-General’s Office of Zhejiang Province.

Thirty banquet tables were set up in the huge back hall, and more than two hundred gentry were seated.

The person sitting at the chief seat is not Lin Shisan, but Li Gao, who is the host tonight.

As for Hu Zongxian, he had nothing to do with this matter.

Xu Fan bowed to Li Gao and asked, "Mr. Li, is Prince Yu in good health?"

Li Gao smiled and said, "It's very peaceful! With my sister taking good care of him every day, my brother-in-law can eat and sleep very well!"

Li Gao had no regard for etiquette. He would not address himself as a king in front of outsiders, but always called them "my brother-in-law".

To outsiders, it seemed that Li Gao and Prince Yu were very close.

Xu Fan smiled and said, "I heard that Master Li has just joined the Jinyiwei and served as the general flag. He was also specially appointed by the emperor as the 'Deputy Envoy for Cat Marriage'. He is truly a young talent with a promising future!"

In fact, the position of "Deputy Envoy for Cat Marriage" was not appointed by Emperor Jiajing, but was given by Lin Shisan blindly in order to push Li Gao to the front as his substitute. After serving Emperor Jiajing in Xiyuan for two years, Lin Shisan gradually understood the temperament of Emperor Jiajing. As long as the job was done, Emperor Jiajing was too lazy to pursue these details.

Li Gao smiled and said, "Yes, yes, God is so gracious. I will do my best to complete this mission."

Xu Fan cupped his hands and said, "If you need us, Master Li, please let us know."

Li Gao followed what Lin Shisan had taught him before, with a sad look on his face and not saying a word.

Xu Fan asked: "Why is Mr. Li so worried?"

Li Gao replied, "Ah! To find a son-in-law for the imperial cat, one has to be chosen from a hundred thousand or a million. But the eunuch Lu in charge of the internal transport warehouse is a stingy person, and he only allocated us a pitiful amount of money. That little money is not enough."

Xu Fan understood: Li Gao invited us to the banquet to get some money! Lin Shisan must be behind it. No problem, just give them some benefits.

Xu Fan was familiar with history books: During the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong sent a bunch of "lychee envoys", "imperial horse envoys" and "flower and bird envoys" to the local areas.

When the envoys arrived at the local places, they extorted money and made a fortune.

Xu Fan thought to himself: It is really the same in ancient and modern times.

Thinking of this, Xu Fan took the initiative to speak: "My Xu family is willing to donate one thousand taels of silver to recruit a cat son-in-law."

A group of gentry said: "I am willing to donate 500 taels of silver!"

"I would like to donate three hundred taels of silver!"

Li Gao stood up and said, "Thank you all for your kindness. Unfortunately, it is far from enough."

"I've made it clear to you all. I can't bring shame to Prince Yu's Mansion on this mission. I must complete it successfully."

"Jiangnan is the small piece of land of all of you present here. If I don't count on you, how can I count on that stingy Hu Zongxian?"

Xu Fan said, "Mr. Li, just tell us the number. We will definitely raise the amount for you even if we have to dig holes in the mountains, sell our property, and our ancestral land."

Li Gaoqing cleared his throat and said, "Well, everyone, to complete the task successfully, at least two million taels of silver will be needed."

Xu Fan thought there was something wrong with his ears: "How much?"

Li Gao repeated: "Two million taels of silver."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the gentry fell silent.

My goodness, this Mr. Li is treating us to a meal not to take advantage of us, but to take advantage of us!
Xu Fan's gaze shifted from Li Gao's face to Lin Shisan's face, who was concentrating on eating.

He knew very well that Li Gao, a dissolute relative of the emperor, could not have such a big appetite. It must be Lin Shisan who ordered it.

Xu Fan tried to test Lin Shisan: "Lin Chuanfeng, everyone says that you are an expert in raising and playing with pets. May I ask why you need to spend two million taels of silver to recruit a son-in-law for the imperial cat?"

"If two million taels of silver were converted into gold, I'm afraid we could beat up hundreds of golden cats as big as Mei Shuang!"

Lin Shisan chewed the pigeon leg bone in his hand and said, "It will indeed cost two million taels of silver. Please listen to me as I explain in detail!"

"The Imperial Cat is looking for a son-in-law, imitating the example of the emperor choosing his concubines. When the emperor chooses his concubines, the internal transport treasury always allocates money to the various provincial governments, and the provincial governments allocate money to the various prefectures, states, and counties."

"In June of the first year of the Jiajing reign, the Emperor selected his empress and concubines. He first allocated 300,000 taels of silver from the internal treasury. The local governments all said that it was not enough and they were unable to select a beautiful woman that would satisfy the Emperor."

"In July, another 500,000 taels of silver were allocated from the internal transport treasury. The local government continued to say that it was insufficient."

"In August, another 600,000 taels of silver were allocated, but the local government still said it was insufficient."

"In September, 600,000 taels of silver were allocated. The local government then began to select beauties."

"The Emperor gave two million taels to the local government. You should know that when the late Emperor Wuzong passed away, the money left in the Internal Transport Treasury was two million taels."

"This time the Imperial Cat is looking for a son-in-law, and he is using silver like the emperor did when he was selecting his concubines. Isn't two million taels a reasonable amount?"

If an emperor wants to rule the country, he must first get married to show that he is an adult. In those days, Emperor Jiajing was eager to rule the country, but he was blackmailed by civil officials into giving him an internal transport warehouse.

The gentry led by Xu Fan were stunned.

What kind of heresy is this?
Isn't it just a cat? No matter how noble the royal cat is, can it be the same as the emperor?

But back then, the civil officials all over the country extorted the Jiajing Emperor. Do you want to get the money back for the Jiajing Emperor?

Li Gao cried, "Please have mercy on me, all the philanthropists! If I can't get the money together, I can't do my job."

"If we fail to do the job well, it will be Prince Yu who loses face! If Prince Yu loses face, Xu Ci Fu's face will also have to be stuffed into his crotch!"

"I know, you are all big pigs from Jiangnan. Ah, I am from a small place, and I speak with an accent. I am a rich man, not a big pig."

Lin Shisan's heart tightened: Why did you tell the truth?

Li Gao said, "Everyone here has at least a few hundred thousand taels of wealth! Two million taels sounds intimidating. If you just take a few tiny amounts and put them together, you can make up the difference."

"As long as you can gather enough money, I will kowtow to you!"

"Please do not give face to the monk, but to the Buddha. Even if you give face to my brother-in-law,

Xu Fan finally expressed his opinion: "Let's do this. We grit our teeth and scrape together three hundred thousand taels. Our family may look big and powerful, but it's all just empty talk."

"If we can get together 300,000 yuan, we will all have to live a hard life this year."

"If there is not enough, please ask Master Li and Lin Chuanfeng to take the imperial edict to the local government of Zhejiang to ask for it. How do you think?"

Li Gao said, "Go ask the Zhejiang government for it? The governor of Zhejiang is so poor that he wants to be poor. Where can they get such a lot of spare money?"

Lin Shisan stood up and said, "Mr. Xu, please follow me. I have a few important words to say to you in private."

Xu Fan followed Lin Shisan to the back hall.

Lin Shisan clapped his hands, and Zhang Bo came out holding a wooden box.

Lin Shisan opened the wooden box, and inside was a stack of papers. Before Xu Fan could see clearly, Lin Shisan closed the wooden box.

This is a trick. In fact, the wooden box contains only the Three Character Classic handwritten by Hu Boqi's son.

Lin Shisan asked, "May I ask, Master Xu, is the Guangyi Cotton Cloth Shop in Huating County your business?"

Xu Fan was stunned and said perfunctorily: "It seems to be opened by a distant nephew of my Xu family."

Lin Shisan laughed loudly, "Hahaha. Mr. Xu, why do you have to speak in secret in front of an open person? You are the major shareholder of Guangjinyi."

"Last December, Guang Jinyi bought 150,000 rolls of Songjiang cotton cloth from all over Songjiang Prefecture."

"What's strange is that the Xu family didn't store such a large amount of cotton cloth in the strong walled city of Huating County, but actually stored it in a cloth warehouse outside the city. They only sent a dozen old and weak servants to watch over it, just to prevent fire."

"Within three days, the Japanese pirates led by Gao Cangwentai landed and invaded, and attacked the cloth warehouse outside Huating County. They stole all 150,000 pieces of Songjiang cotton cloth."

"An even stranger thing happened. On the night when the Japanese pirates 'plundered' the cotton cloth, a ship docked. You brought more than 200 servants with you to carry 200,000 taels of silver from the ship and transported it back to your ancestral home."

"Is this the Xu family being robbed by the Japanese pirates, or is this a tacit deal with the Japanese pirates?"

Xu Fan was stunned.

Lin Shisan patted the box and said, "In the past fifteen years, Guangjinyi Cotton Cloth Shop has been robbed by Japanese pirates almost every year. The box contains detailed digital records."

"I'm just confused. How can Guangjinyi continue to operate when it's robbed and losing money every year?"

(End of this chapter)