Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 42 Forced Seizure and Robbery: Arrogant and Overbearing
Just as Zhu Jue was preparing to have blast furnaces built for steelmaking, Wei Zhongxian began arresting people and confiscating their stolen goods!

This guy is truly insidious and ruthless.

He claimed to be discussing land sales with officials in the court, but secretly he wanted to make money off those officials who refused to sell their land!
These officials had no idea he would dare to do something like this.

Many officials listened to the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party and went against him, refusing to sell the land to him.

This time, he caught more than twenty people!

He also ordered his men to arrest them and subject them to torture, forcing each official to hand over 100,000 taels of silver in bribes!
You refuse to sell the land, is that it?

Okay.

I'm not buying it, I'm just grabbing it!

The young emperor said that he cannot punish ordinary people without cause, but he has no problem punishing corrupt officials like you.

You officials who can seize land in the capital region must be corrupt. Your land was also obtained through embezzlement. I will confiscate it directly and not give you a single penny. I will even ask you to hand over the stolen goods!

His actions caused an uproar in the court.

The Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party went on a rampage, impeaching him like madmen. This guy was too arrogant.

The next morning around 7 a.m., Zhu Jue was taken aback when he saw the memorials, which were more than twice as thick as usual.

What are these guys doing?
We've already prepared yesterday's impeachment memorials for you, why are you still submitting them?
He opened the memorial and was taken aback.

Wei Zhongxian has started blatant robbery again!

Good job grabbing it!

It was definitely the right decision to entrust land acquisition to such a treacherous and ruthless person.

If it were an official who valued his reputation, he would probably be stuck there, unable to move.

Wei Zhongxian was quite something. You wouldn't sell, huh? If you wouldn't sell, he would just forcibly seize your land. After taking your land, he would also brand you as corrupt officials and demand payment for your ill-gotten gains!
Great, that's how it should be fucked up!
Wei Zhongxian was truly the nemesis of civil officials; this is how you should deal with them.

This way, not only will most of the land be free to buy, but we can also steal more than two million taels of dirty silver.

As for the public outrage, with the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party in uproar, what is he afraid of?

Since Wei Zhongxian offended the people, why would those civil officials come looking for trouble with him? In fact, the civil officials in the outer court would have to beg him to deal with Wei Zhongxian.

He was a little worried if Wei Zhongxian could incite millions or even tens of millions of disaster victims to revolt. But these hundreds or thousands of officials were nothing; they couldn't even touch Wei Zhongxian.

He couldn't be bothered with these officials from outside the court, and kept all the impeachment memorials in the capital without issuing them!
Now that he has money, the important thing is to quickly build up the outer city and factories.

He quickly finished reviewing the memorials and then announced loudly, "Summon Tian Hongyu and Yuan You to come and pay their respects."

These two were in the capital city; they arrived quickly.

A short while later, the two arrived together, cupped their hands and bowed, saying, "Your humble servants pay their respects to Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "How is it, Father-in-law Tian? How's the investigation going? When will the Jingying Garrison be able to finish harvesting the rice and wheat?"

That's easy, just ask someone.

Tian Hongyu nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I have investigated and found that the rice and wheat in the capital garrison will not be fully harvested until the beginning of next month."

During that period, the able-bodied men of the garrison could not be relied upon.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Father-in-law Yuan, have you found out roughly how many artisans there are in the capital region?"

This is also simple.

Yuan You nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I have investigated and found that there are about 27,000 artisan households in the capital region that provide labor services to various government offices in the inner palace, and about 113,000 households that provide labor services to the Ministry of Works."

There are quite a few artisans in the capital region. Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Do they have a lot of work?"

How do you say this?

Yuan You thought for a moment, then carefully said, "Your Majesty, if it's the kind of work that doesn't pay, that's a lot. Many corrupt officials forcibly conscript artisans to do labor without paying them at all, and they don't even provide them with food."

If we're talking about paid work, that's very hard to find, because there are just too many artisans in the capital region, and ordinary people don't have much money these days. Very few people are willing to pay artisans to work for them; they usually do whatever they can themselves.

He himself came from a family of artisans, so he naturally knew what kind of life artisans in the capital region lived.

Actually, they didn't want to be crammed into the capital region where there were too many monks and not enough porridge, but before Zhang Juzheng's reforms, they had to come to the capital region every year to perform labor service.

This round trip involved hundreds or even thousands of miles, and the imperial court didn't even provide food. Countless people starved to death on the road.

Therefore, many artisans were too lazy to return to their hometowns. They would build a makeshift shelter in the capital region and look for work to support their families. No matter what, it was better than starving to death on the road.

This is the current situation of artisans in the capital region.

Li Wei, the biological father of Empress Dowager Li during the Wanli era, was a craftsman. He was a bricklayer and his ancestral home was Yicheng, Shanxi. His ancestors stayed in the capital region to avoid starving on the road.

This guy's life was absolutely miserable. His wife starved to death, his eldest daughter was sold into the Prince Yu's mansion as a maid, and his youngest son was sold into the palace as a eunuch. Even with just this one family, they still couldn't get enough to eat.

Zhu Jue also had a general idea of ​​how miserable these artisans were.

These are highly skilled technical workers, who are invaluable assets to countries that want to develop their industries.

He naturally needs to be taken good care of.

He was already short of money and couldn't hire too many craftsmen.

But things were different this time. Wei Zhongxian not only saved him a lot of money, but also robbed him of even more money. He could afford to support all 100,000 artisans he recruited.

He thought about it carefully and then decisively said, "You should send people to post notices in the places where craftsmen gather to recruit people. Any craftsmen who are willing to work will be paid one or two taels of silver per month for each able-bodied person, and the elderly, women and children who come to help will be fed."

Furthermore, you should have someone tell those artisans that once the outer city walls and factories are completed, I will buy them some land to build houses. They can also work and earn money directly in the factories built within the inner palace. I guarantee they will live a life of plenty.

Upon hearing this, Yuan You was so moved that he almost shed tears.

He used to have a miserable life too; those corrupt officials didn't treat artisans like human beings!

Now that's good, the current emperor is going to let everyone live a good life with plenty of food and clothing.

He said in a trembling voice, "Your Majesty, I thank you for your grace on behalf of all the artisans in the capital region."

This is nothing; the lives of artisans will definitely get better and better in the future.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then stood up and pointed to the map on the table, saying, "Have all the craftsmen who are willing to work go to the west bank of the Chaobai River. We will first build this section of the city wall, which is more than ten miles long running north to south, and at the same time assign manpower to build factories."

As for the east and west walls, you don't need to worry about them. Once the Beijing Garrison has finished harvesting the rice and wheat, I will have Grandfather Tian gather the able-bodied men of the garrison to rebuild them."

Upon hearing this, Yuan You nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "How many artisans do you think you can recruit? How long will it take to build that section of the city wall? And how long will it take to build the steel mill, glass factory, shipyard, and other factories?"

How do you say this?

Yuan You pondered and said, "Your Majesty, you pay them wages and make sure they are well-fed. I believe they will go wherever they can, and there are at least 100,000 households."

If we assume each artisan household has five members, as long as they are fed, the elderly, women, and children will definitely come to help. A city wall that is more than ten miles long is about 1,600 zhang (approximately 600 meters). At most, ten artisan households can be squeezed within one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters). This section of the city wall is enough to squeeze more than 16,000 artisan households.

With so many people working together to build a city wall ten feet high, I estimate that a month should be enough.

As for the factory buildings, I can allocate 10,000 units for each factory to build; I believe that no matter how large the factory is, a month will be enough.

Excellent! The industrialization process of the Ming Dynasty is about to begin. In one month, the Ming Dynasty will embark on the road to industrialization!
(End of this chapter)