Chapter 128: The Official’s Life Is Not Easy (I)
Xu Youlin arrived at Zibo County in August of the first year of Yongzheng's reign. After looking at the newly built headquarters of the Zhongfu platform by Huo Chong for a while, Xu Youlin couldn't help but sigh. In the past, he had a grudge with Huo Chong's master Liu Shu, but how could he have thought that he would meet a person like Huo Chong. Although the building in front of him was not a red building with carved beams and painted buildings, many of the building materials were fences and straw mats. But it was neat and generous, and the layout was strict. At least Xu Youlin had ignored those materials that could actually be easily destroyed, and was attracted by the feeling embodied by the building itself.
After a sigh of emotion, Xu Youlin cheered up and walked into the headquarters. He had contacted the headquarters before coming here, and someone had already received Xu Youlin and his party. When he asked if Huo Chong was there, the receptionist just told Xu Youlin that Huo Chong was already here.
Xu Youlin was also a man who had seen the world. Huo Chong's subordinates already had the demeanor of a wealthy family. They would not say anything that they shouldn't. They also didn't hide anything that they should say, and they didn't have the bad habit of asking for money like the servants of a wealthy family.
After a half-day break, someone invited Xu Youlin to the reception room, where Huo Chong was already waiting. There were several young people standing beside him, waiting for Huo Chong to approve the documents. Although the young people were a little anxious, Huo Chong still read the documents step by step and then signed them.
Seeing that Xu Youlin had been waiting for a while, Huo Chong asked the young man to leave the documents he had not finished reading, put down his pen, stood up and shook hands with Xu Youlin.
Xu Youlin gradually got used to Huo Chong's behavior. After a warm handshake, Xu Youlin praised him, "I still remember that Brother Huo used to treat me with smoked wild boar meat. At that time, I thought that Brother Huo's food and clothing were not ordinary. Now it seems that Brother Huo must be from a wealthy family."
Huo Chong did not explain. It is no exaggeration to say that in the 21st century, the living conditions of Chinese families with a monthly income of more than 20,000 yuan are better than those of Yongzheng. The biggest difference between these families and Yongzheng is that Yongzheng could enslave a large number of people, while the social system of New China cuts off the power of these people to enslave others.
Asking Xu Youlin to sit down, Huo Chong asked, "Brother Xu, is the workshop in Jiangnan still going on?"
Xu Youlin praised: "Brother Huo's subordinates are really powerful. With only a few thousand acres of land, the maltose and wine produced are several times more than other lands. Many people think that the land purchased by Brother Huo is a good offering to the God of Land."
Hearing Xu Youlin's implicit words, Huo Chong didn't say much, but just laughed in his heart. What about offering sacrifices to the God of Land? It's just another way of saying "planting blessings". As far as Huo Chong knows, the crops produced by Huo Chong's land along the canal north of the Yangtze River are fully utilized, and the production capacity is particularly high. This has greatly surprised the local people. The most interesting thing is that the staple food eaten by Huo Chong's staff is purchased locally, and the products made from the output of Huo Chong's land are all for sale.
"Brother Huo, my uncle is very confused as to why you care so much about the affairs in the capital?" Xu Youlin began to ask questions.
Huo Chong sighed. Although it was an act, Huo Chong felt that the sigh came from the heart. "Brother Xu, if the Fourteenth Master falls, there will definitely be many people who want to deal with me. If the Fourteenth Master is just guarding the body, those people will always be afraid. If the Fourteenth Master comes back, they will not have a good time. Although the officials in the capital will not think so. But the local officials do not know the news in the capital. Even if they hear a little, they dare not be sure that the Fourteenth Master will be imprisoned. I am doing this purely to protect myself."
"Why does Brother Huo care so much about news from the Northwest?" Xu Youlin continued to ask.
"Perhaps some people think that since General Nian won a great victory in the northwest, the Fourteenth Master is of no use to the Emperor. I don't think so. If General Nian was defeated, how could the Emperor call the Fourteenth Master out to fight? People live by their reputation, and trees live by their skin. Doesn't the Emperor have any face? Isn't this reputation what we rely on to travel the world?"
After hearing what Huo Chong said, Xu Youlin nodded repeatedly. Huo Chong felt that he almost believed it. In fact, it was true, but Huo Chong never considered profiting from this information. General Nian should die after his victory, and Yongzheng would lose the trust of the official if he killed Nian Gengyao. Nian Gengyao was not a person without strength, and Huo Chong did not think that he could easily defeat such an experienced general like Nian Gengyao.
After confirming Huo Chong's thoughts, Xu Youlin told Huo Chong the news in the capital. Yongzheng had already reached the point of "infatuation" with Nian Gengyao. But the views in the officialdom are completely different from those in later TV dramas. The TV dramas will not elaborate on the fact that Nian Gengyao's father had already been favored by Kangxi, and Concubine Nian was Yongzheng's beloved woman.
The Manchu officialdom was not as boring as the literati in later generations. Based on these factual backgrounds, officials believed that Nian Gengyao, with the help of his father and sister, would become an important official in the Yongzheng Dynasty comparable to Mingzhu and Tong Guowei in the early Kangxi Dynasty.
In May of the first year of Yongzheng's reign (1723), Yongzheng issued an imperial edict: "If there are any deployments of troops or the use of food and money, the ministers in charge of frontier defense and the governors-general of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Yunnan should follow Nian Gengyao's orders." In this way, Nian Gengyao took charge of all affairs in the west and actually became Yongzheng's trusted agent on the western frontier. His power and status were actually higher than that of General Fuyuan Yanxin and other governors-general. Yongzheng also warned local officials in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan to obey Nian Gengyao's orders.
Huo Chong listened carefully. Since Yongzheng could make such preparations, it proved that the war in the northwest would be fierce. Nian Gengyao would have a great demand for the colored glaze fire that greatly improved the efficiency of fire making.
After talking about some things in the capital, Xu Youlin sighed, "Brother Huo, I know you always dare to tell the truth. I just want to ask you one thing, is there any official who wants to get money from you?"
"Oh? Brother Xu also encountered it?" Huo Chong was very interested.
Xu Youlin sighed repeatedly, describing the situation of officials in Jiangnan living in poverty. After Yongzheng came to power, he asked officials to repay the money they borrowed from the national treasury. Since the middle of Kangxi, it has become normal for officials to borrow money from the national treasury.
During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Kangxi tried to solve this problem several times, and Emperor Yongzheng was ordered to do so several times. But each attempt failed because the majority of the borrowers were important officials close to Emperor Kangxi, such as Cao Yin, whom Emperor Kangxi regarded as a family member.
However, this favor also came to an end. In the 61st year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Cao Fu, the heir of the Cao family who inherited the Jiangnan Weaving Factory, and Li Xu, Cao Yin's brother-in-law, owed money for selling ginseng. The Ministry of Internal Affairs petitioned Emperor Kangxi and ordered Li Xu and Cao Fu to pay the money owed before the end of the year, otherwise they would be severely punished. Emperor Kangxi approved it immediately. Obviously, this was a complete change from Emperor Kangxi's previous attitude towards Cao Yin.
After Yongzheng came to power, he issued edicts one after another, and began to conduct a nationwide audit of the money and grain, and to make up for the deficit. He repeatedly said: I can no longer be as tolerant as my father, and any official who is found to have embezzled money and grain will be dismissed immediately.
In the first year of Yongzheng's reign alone, dozens of officials at all levels were dismissed from their posts and had their property confiscated. Li Xu, the Suzhou weaving manufacturer who was a relative of the Cao family and had shared hardships with them, was also convicted of embezzlement and had his property confiscated. However, Yongzheng did not punish the Cao family and Li Xu together at the beginning, but allowed him to pay off the deficit in three years. Cao Fu's own deficit had not yet been repaid, and the deficit left by Cao Yin was added, so he had to ask for help from many people.
In order to prevent someone from intimidating and blackmailing Cao Fu, Yongzheng specifically instructed Cao Fu: running around and making friends with others will only drag yourself down and waste your time and energy to bring disaster upon yourself; you must make up your mind, stay within the law, and don't act recklessly, otherwise you will damage my reputation and be severely punished, and even Prince Yi cannot save you!
"Oh? Is the emperor telling the Cao family to seek refuge with Prince Yi?" Huo Chong understood something. The special edict from Emperor Yongzheng showed that he had good intentions towards Cao Fu. Moreover, this edict also fully pointed out what the descendants of the Cao family should do. Yongzheng's thirteenth brother, Yunxiang, was Yongzheng's confidant...
"That's right. The Cao family is spreading this thing everywhere. Humph! They really don't know how to die." Xu Youlin said unhappily. After a while of envy and jealousy, Xu Youlin said unhappily: "The Cao family also cheated me of more than a thousand kilograms of Liuli Fire. It seems that I can't pay it back now!"
Huo Chong laughed and said nothing more. The Cao family was well-off, and the royal family used the glazed fire, so the Cao family certainly couldn't fall behind. Although Xu Youlin was cheated of more than a thousand kilograms of glazed fire, Huo Chong really didn't care. It was precisely because of the use of the Cao family and Li Xu, the eighth salt censor, that solid alcohol could be quickly spread in Jiangnan. Compared with the sales of tens of thousands of kilograms a year or several years, the loss of more than a thousand kilograms was nothing. It's just that the Cao family didn't even let go of this little thing. It seems that as described in "Dream of Red Mansions", the family business has been rotten from the inside out.
Another important person is Li Xu. When Kangxi went to Jiangnan, he either stayed at Cao's house or Li's house. It is said that Li Xu's mother was Kangxi's wet nurse. When Kangxi contracted smallpox, other people ignored him, but Li Xu's mother took good care of him and saved Kangxi.
Because Kangxi had suffered from smallpox, he was considered safe from harm in the future, so he became emperor. Therefore, Kangxi and Li Xu were "milk brothers". In addition, Li Xu was capable and was favored by Kangxi.
But such a person was arrested and imprisoned in January of the first year of Yongzheng's reign. On July 22 of the same year, Longkodo forwarded Chen Chabina's memorial saying: "It was found that among Li Xu's shortfalls, the merchants underpaid the compensation and the shortfalls totaled 378,840 taels, and the merchants should pursue compensation." According to this number, Li Xu's shortfall of 380,000 taels of silver minus the amount that the merchants should compensate, actually only "owed" 1,160 taels. This more than 1,000 taels of owed silver could be fully compensated with family property, but Yongzheng still dismissed Li Xu on the grounds of "deficit of official treasury." His house was awarded to Nian Gengyao; his children, servants, boys and girls, a total of more than 200 people , were arrested and sent to the market for auction. In this way, a family of nobles and officials, who had been prosperous for a hundred years, fell into ruin in the blink of an eye.
Huo Chong was delighted to hear the news. This move was a clear signal from Yongzheng to his ministers, asking them not to resist the action of clearing the tax debts.
Although for the spectators, shouting "Hang the street lamp" would be very pleasant. However, the officials felt completely different. No wonder some people set their sights on Huo Chong.
