Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 129 Donglin Falls into Decline (Part 4)
"Every word I just said came from my heart. I am just being foolish. I hope Your Highness will understand."
Looking at Li Sancai crying bitterly in the audience, Zhu Youdong, who was sitting in the main seat, couldn't help but hesitate.
Thanks to the fruitful research results of Ming history in later generations and the large number of online novels with the Ming Dynasty as the background, Zhu Youdong is quite familiar with Li Sancai.
First of all, this guy can really get things done and will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals.
For example, when he had just taken office as the governor of the grain transport in the 27th year of the Wanli reign (1599), he encountered the imperial court sending Chen Zeng to his jurisdiction to collect mining taxes. Although ordinary local officials opposed the mining taxes, they either wrote letters to persuade or criticize the emperor, or resigned from their posts, or simply went along with the corrupt officials. However, Li Sancai not only wrote to the emperor to say that collecting mining taxes was not allowed, but he also dealt with Chen Zeng.
First, he went to the prison in his jurisdiction and made a deal with the prisoners on death row: "In your confession, you must say that Chen Zeng's men are your accomplices." Then he arrested all of Chen Zeng's men with these confessions. Although an eunuch had the emperor's support, he had no minions, so how could he collect taxes?
Later, Chen Zeng cultivated a henchman named Cheng Shouxun to collect mining taxes. Li Sancai first endured it and secretly conducted a detailed investigation of Cheng Shouxun's actions. Later, he took the initiative to talk to Chen Zeng: Eunuch Chen, your subordinate Cheng Shouxun collected mining taxes everywhere. In addition to the silver given to you and the emperor, he also intercepted 600,000 taels!
Chen Zeng was furious when he heard this: It was okay for a younger brother to save some private money behind the boss's back, but how could he withhold so much money? So he stopped protecting Cheng Shouxun, and under the joint attack of the two, Cheng Shouxun quickly fell. His family property was also swallowed up by Chen Zeng, and then Chen Zeng gave Li Sancai 100,000 taels as hush money.
Unfortunately, Li Sancai was not a kind person. After he received the 100,000 taels, he found a servant of Cheng Shouxun and asked him to falsely accuse Cheng Shouxun of making dragon robes and phoenix crowns privately under the instruction of Chen Zeng. As a result, Chen Zeng had to give him another 300,000 taels in succession.
Li Sancai's gains were not limited to this: Although Cheng Shouxun embezzled money, he was still capable of doing things. You, Chen Zeng, not only abandoned such a good dog, but also took all the family property. This made other dogs hesitate to do things. Then Chen Zeng sent less money to the palace every year.
The former excellent model of mining tax collection now sent less and less money every year. Wanli was of course unhappy, so he often issued edicts to blame Chen Zeng, which made Chen Zeng very depressed. Li Sancai saw that the time was right, so he pushed Chen Zeng and said: We, the civil officials, have heard through the channels that the cabinet elders have already reported to the emperor, asking him to arrest you.
Two days later, Li Sancai went to scare Chen Zeng again: I heard that the people who are going to catch you are about to reach the city gate on horseback!
Chen Zeng, who was filled with regret, shame and fear, had no choice but to hang himself. Then Li Sancai accepted Chen Zeng's millions of assets with a smile...
During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, many mine supervisors were beaten to death or driven away by local people instigated by local gentry. However, there was only one case where a local official killed Chen Zeng.
Moreover, Li Sancai received more than one million taels of black money in this matter alone, but his reputation was well-known in Lianghuai: he forced the eunuch who supervised the mines to death! Which gentry in Lianghuai and along the Grand Canal did not sing his praises? Before the Jinling Daily came out, if the gentry said that this person was good, it meant that all the local people said that this person was good.
This guy is also greedy, and he is very bold when he is greedy. In addition to killing two people and collecting black money twice as mentioned above. He has been in charge of the canal transportation for a very long time, and his tentacles have spread to the grassroots level of the canal transportation. The Grand Canal is the main channel for all materials from the south to go north. Therefore, Li Sancai can basically intervene in everything and take a cut of everything: the most ruthless time was when he directly intercepted 2,000 logs sent by Yunnan and Myanmar to build the palace for the palace, and used them to build a house for his own family.
Of course, apart from being greedy, cruel and ruthless, this person is not completely useless.
He has a rich official career, having served as a censor, court official, local official, judicial official, and civil affairs official. And his reputation as an official is excellent! A hypocrite who can be so hypocritical is also a talent!
Secondly, although he was greedy, he still knew the importance of things. During his tenure as the governor of Fengyang , he fully supported Cao Shipin's river management, and he provided him with an endless supply of conscripts, food, and silver. And when various parties attacked Cao Shipin, he was able to stand up and protect him from the wind and rain. It was the cooperation of these two people that the country carried out large-scale management of the Huai River and the lower reaches of the Yellow River during the Wanli period. In the historical plane, even during the Tianqi and Chongzhen years, when the whole country was in chaos, there were no problems with the rivers in these two places.
So, this person is useful.
"Daofu, you are not young anymore. Aren't you tired standing with your back bent like this? Sit down and talk."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Li Sancai pretended to be very tired and moved slowly, then sat down on the corner of the stool with his buttocks slightly touched like a shy little wife, and he seemed to have no idea where to put his remaining hands.
"Puff~" Seeing this guy who had been in the government for decades and had always done things in a high-profile manner pretending to be pure in front of him, Zhu Youdong couldn't help but waved at Wang Chengen: "This stool is too small, go and get Daofu a soft chair."
After Li Sancai sat down again, Zhu Youdong said, "Daofu, according to the underworld jargon, if you want to change your affiliation, you have to give a token of allegiance."
Hearing such words that were extremely unbecoming of the Crown Prince, Li Sancai did not feel uncomfortable at all, nor did he have the righteousness he had when he petitioned Wanli to stop collecting mining taxes. He smiled obscenely, "Your Highness, what do you think I should do to reassure you?"
"Well, stopping funding for Donglin Academy is one. As for the second, hehe, I recently asked the Ministry of Rites in Beijing to send me the contemporary essays of the top scholars of the Ming Dynasty, from Wu Bozong in the Hongwu Dynasty to Huang Shijun in the 35th year of the Wanli Period."
"Your Highness...you are wise...I know what to do."
"Oh, dealing with smart people is worry-free. Daofu, please rest assured that Donglin will not tolerate you for doing such a thing. I will not stand by and watch you die."
"I have observed everything Your Highness has done since I was enlightened. Although I am not very smart and don't understand some things, Your Highness is very caring towards his own people."
"Hmm..." After a pause, Zhu Youdong said, "The Prime Minister (Zhu Geng) is seriously ill and is said to be unlikely to survive this year. The Second Prime Minister has been shutting himself in and not taking care of things. Now there are three cabinet elders, but in fact, it is only Jinqing (Ye Xianggao) who is doing things. Daofu, what do you think of Jinqing? Is he a member of Donglin?"
"Your Highness, Jin Qing cannot be considered a member of Donglin. In my opinion, Jin Qing is a good person. He wants to reconcile the various parties, stop the party disputes, and work together for the country. Because he wants to reconcile, Jin Qing has to have a good relationship with the Donglin people, so he is mistakenly regarded as a member of Donglin."
"Daofu's judgment of people is not very accurate, but he does have some truth." After a slight smile, Zhu Youdong stood up and walked to Li Sancai's side: "Daofu's integrity is far inferior to Jinqing, but in my opinion, sometimes good people may not necessarily do good things. Therefore, I will advise Grandpa Huang to let Daofu enter the cabinet as soon as this year or as late as next year!"
