Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 70: Northwest Crisis Has Emerged (I)
"Your Highness, Chen Shiji, pays respect to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
"This servant Liang Yong pays homage to the Thousand-Year-Old Master and the Young Master."
In May of this year, Chen Shiji, the magistrate of Xianyang County under the Shaanxi Provincial Administration, and Liang Yong, the Shaanxi tax supervisor, were recruited to the capital. After Zhu Youdong received the news, he quickly pulled Zhu Changluo out for an interview.
"Get up, everyone." After saying this lazily, Zhu Changluo, with swollen eyelids, leaned heavily on the chair, then nodded at Zhu Youdong.
"Ahem." Zhu Youdong bowed to Zhu Changluo helplessly and turned around. "I urgently called you two back from Shaanxi today because I wanted to hear about Liang Yong's impeachment of County Magistrate Chen a few days ago. Well, the prince is here today, so you can say anything. Liang Yong, you go first. How did Chen Shiji disobey the emperor's order and rob the tax law?"
"Reporting to the Thousand-year-old Master, Young Master, I was sent by the Emperor to collect mining taxes in Shaanxi. This, I can't collect the mining taxes by myself, there must be a team of people under me. This team must have food and fodder, right? There must be some salary, right? Last winter, Shaanxi was very cold, and the cotton-padded clothes of my subordinates were all hardened, and they couldn't go out to do work at all, but the Emperor's work could not be delayed. So I had to send a letter to Chen Mingfu, asking Xianyang County to provide cotton clothes and other cold-resistant supplies... But Chen Mingfu was stingy, and the supplies that I allocated through the household office of Xianyang County Government were actually detained by Chen Mingfu and his runners... Thousand-year-old Master, Young Master, I am dedicated to doing work for the Long-year-old Master, but in this cold winter, without cold-resistant things, how can we do things?"
Haha, he sneered in his heart, then turned around and said to Chen Shiji: "What do you want to say, County Master Chen?"
"Yes, Your Highnesses, Crown Prince and Crown Prince, please allow me to report this. Much of what Envoy Liang said just now is untrue."
"Every word I say..."
"Hey, Liang Yong, did I ask you to speak? Sit down!"
"Young Master, this servant..."
"Asshole! I told you to sit down and you dared to talk back?!" It seems that this guy has been working outside for a long time and doesn't know my reputation in the capital over the years.
After scolding Liang Yong again with a stern face, Zhu Youdong raised his hand towards Chen Shiji.
"Thank you, Your Highness, Your Highnesses. Just now, Envoy Liang said that he had sent a letter to me requesting Xianyang County to provide warm clothing for the envoy's troops. Envoy Liang, the letter you sent me clearly stated that you wanted fifty fur coats and 1,500 felts. I replied that we have cotton-padded clothes to keep warm, but Xianyang County is poor and it is impossible to get fifty fur coats and 1,500 felts at once. And you sent me another letter, saying that furs and felts are indispensable, so I... As for my household manager, since he is a local, you sent someone to tell him that if he doesn't hand over these fur coats, you will specify that there is a mineral vein under his ancestral home..."
The story is actually very simple. Liang Yong wanted to make money for the emperor and for himself when he arrived at the locality, so he extorted some local officials. County magistrates in the Ming Dynasty were all officials in other places, so Chen Shiji, whose ancestral home was not in Xianyang, ignored Liang Yong. When Liang Yong threatened the local head of the household, the head quickly gave in.
Chen Shiji's strength was this: his subordinates had raised funds and prepared clothes, but he dared to lead his men to stop them. This angered Liang Yong, so he was sued.
After hearing what happened, Zhu Youdong frowned slightly.
Everyone knew that the eunuchs sent out from the palace had extorted local people, so Zhu Youdong didn't feel surprised when Liang Yong was exposed today.
What he was more concerned about was Liang Yong's stupidity: he dared to leave a receipt when asking for a bribe. How stupid must he be? How rampant must he be to do such a stupid thing? And the eunuchs who were selected by Wanli to collect mining taxes must at least be considered as middle-class people in the palace, right? From this, we can see to what extent these eunuchs sent to the whole country would ruin the reputation of the royal family.
Secondly, he was horrified by Liang Yong's small appetite: extorting a county magistrate for only fifty leather coats and 1,500 felts? How poor must Xianyang be to make Liang Yong realize that he was not asking for too much?
"Humph!" After figuring out the whole story, Zhu Changluo, who was sitting at the top, snorted fiercely: "Liang Yong, you did a bad job!"
"Forgive me, my lord. I am having a hard time out there..."
"I won't say much to you. I will tell my father what I said today. You can go and tell him yourself then."
"Ah? Lord Qiansui, please have mercy on me..."
Ignoring Liang Yong who was kowtowing like crazy, Zhu Changluo stood up, nodded slightly to Chen Shiji, and left Xinghua Palace.
"Master, Master! Please save me!"
Seeing Zhu Changluo walk away, Liang Yong was really anxious. He was not afraid that the emperor would take his life - if he really wanted to kill people for such a small bribe, who would be willing to go out and collect money for the emperor in the future? He was afraid that if this matter became a big deal, the emperor would dismiss him from his job and let him return to the palace.
Please, in order to get this job, my family gave money everywhere in the palace, not only did we spend all our savings in the first half of our life, but we also had to borrow a lot of money from outside. If I am called back now, what will happen? !
"Go down first and wait outside. I'll call you later. Um, Wang Chengen, take Liang Yong down with you."
After sending Liang Yong away, Zhu Youdong turned around and said, "Mr. Chen Ming, please sit down. I have something to ask you."
"I am terrified and do not dare to be called the Grand Master."
"Well, what is County Magistrate Chen's courtesy name?"
"My courtesy name is Kuanren."
"Oh, then please take a seat, Kuanren. Someone, please bring a cup of hot tea to County Magistrate Chen."
"Your Highness treats me so well, I am so grateful!"
Chinese society has always been a hierarchical society. The difference is that in ancient times, this hierarchy was openly displayed, with strict and specific etiquette requirements. Mingfu is a respectful title for the county magistrate. And courtesy name is also a respectful title (in ancient times acceptable for elders to call younger people by their given names, but peers had to call each other by their courtesy names, otherwise it would be impolite).
In short, Zhu Youdong showed enough respect in addressing Chen Shiji. On the premise that he was the grandson and the king , such an address was enough to satisfy Chen Shiji greatly.
"How old is Kuanren this year? When did he enter the government?"
"I am ashamed. I am thirty-five years old this year, and I am a third-class Jinshi in the Jiachen year of the thirty-second year of the Wanli reign."
"Oh, so you and my Mr. Sun are of the same age."
"Yes, Brother Kaiyang is the runner-up in our class. He is truly a role model for our generation."
"Haha, Kuanren, although you speak Mandarin very well, but from your accent, you are from Guangdong, right?"
"Your Highness is the wisest one. I am from Shunde, Guangdong."
"Hahaha, Kuanren, don't be nervous. We have just made it clear about Liang Yong's impeachment of you. Now, I am just chatting with you. You know, I am only six years old this year and I still need to keep learning. Understanding the local situation is also a kind of learning. So, today, I will ask you for advice and understand the local situation."
It has been six years since he traveled to this era, and his starting point is extremely high: he is theoretically the third person in the Ming Dynasty when he was born. Therefore, Zhu Youdong always thinks about problems from a global perspective.
Specifically speaking of Liang Yong's case, Zhu Youdong did not care whether a county magistrate was framed. What he cared about was that he wanted to take this opportunity to find the local officials in Shaanxi to understand the specific situation in the local area.
According to the records of the historical plane, if he did nothing and quietly waited for the throne, he would have to wait for twenty years. He could not accept this situation. So in the past few years, since he had his own team after enlightenment, he worked hard and accumulated strength.
After two years, the results were pretty good. The emperor liked and trusted him, and he also got involved in the northeast and southwest.
However, for the Ming Dynasty, although the Southern Ming Dynasty was destroyed by the Qing Dynasty, from the perspective of hindsight, in the war between Ming and Jin or Ming and Qing, as long as the Ming Dynasty did not commit suicide, even if it lost the Battle of Sarhu, the Ming Dynasty could still defeat the Qing Dynasty.
What was really fatal was the large-scale peasant uprising that began in Shaanxi...
Therefore, he had to plan ahead and learn as much as possible about the real situation in the northwest. This was the purpose of him sending Chen Shiji to Beijing.
