Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 571: Evil Must Be Eradicated
"Your Majesty, this is the conversation between Mr. Li and the eldest prince this afternoon. I feel that the content is a bit... so I'd like to trouble Your Majesty to personally review it."
Except for the emperor, any important figure in the Ming Dynasty must be under the effective surveillance of the East Factory - the current director of the East Factory of the Ming Empire, Wei Zhongxian.
At this moment, Old Wei, with an extremely ordinary old farmer's face, stood in front of Zhu Youdong expressionlessly and handed the emperor the notes of the conversation between Li Jia and Zhu Ciyi that afternoon.
As a time traveler, Zhu Youdong was immune to all poisons, and his reforms were generally gradual and not too radical. But he affected the interests of too many people, so he was afraid of drowning. Therefore, during his reign, the power of the East Factory and the Imperial Guards expanded slightly: only slightly, if it really became a secret agent ruling the country, it would be unacceptable.
The East Factory, where Wei Zhongxian is now the supervisor, has a total staff of more than 7,000 people, including eunuchs, personnel transferred from the Jinyiwei, and secret agents recruited by the East Factory. This number is certainly not as good as the tens of thousands of people in its heyday. But now these 7,000 people are the best of the best. They can fully cover all levels from princes to ordinary people, and can ensure close surveillance of officials above the third rank in the court.
With such a large surveillance area, the intelligence collected every day was innumerable. In this regard, Wei Zhongxian's method was to have ten of his trusted followers screen it first, then he screened it again, and finally picked out what he thought was necessary and handed it over to Zhu Youdong.
In this work, in order to avoid too single a source of intelligence, Jinyiwei's Tian Ergeng also had this power. Moreover, the two were not responsible for each other and acted independently.
But now, because Tian Ergeng is stationed in Beijing, Wei Zhongxian is accompanying Zhu Youdong to inspect the country. So at this moment, Wei is solely responsible for intelligence work to the emperor.
After reading the conversation record submitted by Wei Zhongxian with a frown, Zhu Youdong thought for a while, then said: "Zhongxian, have the gentry in Huai'an really reached the end of their patience?"
"Your Majesty, it's not just Huai'an Prefecture. You know, after His Royal Highness Prince Xin took office as the Imperial Censor of Huai'an, he first investigated the use of the special funds for the resettlement of grain transport workers. As a result, he investigated more and more, including the special expenses for the reconstruction of the embankments on both sides of the Yellow River and the Huai River, the problem of the rampant private salt in Lianghuai, the problem of the construction funds for the Liangjing (Southern Beijing) railway, and so on. These things cannot be investigated in Huai'an Prefecture alone. So over the years, the entire Southern Zhili, and even Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan and other provinces have left the footprints of His Royal Highness Prince Xin..."
Listening to Wei Zhongxian's words, Zhu Youdong could only smile bitterly.
Although Emperor Chongzhen, who was known for his suspicion and harshness in history, could not become emperor in this life, his character also caused a huge wave in his position as an imperial censor.
Huai'an Prefecture was an important section of the Grand Canal in the Ming Dynasty, with many canal workers. At the same time, it was also the place where the Yellow River flowed into the sea, and floods were very serious.
During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the charlatan emperor who performed the Fengshan ceremony on Mount Tai was fooled by a scholar named Li Chui's "Map of the River Guides". He actually wanted to use human power to reverse the course of the Yellow River and force it to flow southward. At that time, the Bohai Bay was in the hands of the Liao Kingdom. If the mouth of the Yellow River really moved further and further north and finally flowed out to the sea in the Bohai Bay, it would mean that the Liao Kingdom could advance unimpeded along the Yellow River to attack the Song Dynasty.
As a result, the officials of the Song Dynasty were so insignificant in front of the Yellow River: the Yellow River embankment was dug, but they could not block it, and at that time the Yellow River did not flow south as they imagined, but flowed north. As a result, by the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, before the invasion of Wanyan Jin, the three provinces of Hebei, Shandong and Henan were almost tormented by the Yellow River.
After the Wanyan Jin invaded the Central Plains, they invested huge manpower and material resources to regulate the turbulent Yellow River: during the heyday of the Jin Dynasty, there were only more than 50 million people, and hundreds of thousands of strong laborers were invested every year to build dams to block and guide the Yellow River. According to historical records, in the most years, 8.5 million people were invested in building river embankments...
This project, which lasted for decades, drained the Jin Dynasty's national strength, but it finally had some effect: the Yellow River was tied back into its river channel.
But in 1194, the Yellow River burst its banks in Yangwu, flooding all the counties along the way, and finally took over the Huai River's course in Huaiyang. The entire fertile land on both sides of the Huai River became a flood area. The most prosperous areas of the Jin Dynasty instantly became the worst-hit areas, and its national strength fell to the bottom at the speed of a weight falling to the ground.
After the fall of the Jin Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, which took over, spent more than 90 years of its reign trying to control the Yellow River from beginning to end. In the end, it managed to bring about the Red Turban Rebellion, which was like "a one-eyed stone man inciting the world to rebel."
It can be said that the diversion and repeated changes of the Yellow River have greatly damaged the vitality of the Northern Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties. And all of this originated from the absurd decision of a certain eccentric emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River completely took over the course of the Huai River. All Ming emperors, including Zhu Youdong, had to accept this result: they had to accept it. Later, the Yellow River was diverted to Shandong to flow into the sea. That time, half of Henan and a small part of Shandong were flooded. Zhu Youdong had no idea or courage to divert the Yellow River again at this time.
But as a result, the original Huai'an became completely uneasy.
During the flood season, officials and civilians in Huai'an Prefecture were all on alert: if there was a small danger on the embankment, they would try their best to repair and reinforce it. If there was a big danger, everyone would flee quickly, otherwise the flood would sweep in and everyone would become nutrients for fish and shrimp.
Before the time travelers brought out the cement, the Ming Dynasty's river embankments were built by prefectures and counties without money using bamboo reinforcement and rammed earth embankments, while the wealthy ones built stone embankments, with the stones bonded together using glutinous rice juice. These embankments could handle ordinary floods, but they were still not able to cope with super-large floods.
After the central government had money, Xu Guangqi, the Minister of Works, made up his mind to replace all the riverbanks of the main rivers in the country with reinforced concrete. Huai'an was the most important node of the project.
Therefore, in addition to the large number of canal workers who need to be resettled in recent years, the Ministry of Works allocates an astronomical amount of project funds to Huai'an every year: basically, at least two million silver yuan of various funds are allocated to Huai'an Prefecture every year.
It was also because of this that the newly appointed Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Zhao Yan, sent the newly appointed Zhu Youjian here.
As Lao Wei said, Zhu Youjian was not an ordinary censor: he was a prince, protected by personal guards, and could dispatch the local Jinyiwei at will. The passing Dongchang guards had no choice but to obey. He could also intimidate the local officials with his princely status, and the officials and people who approached him for various purposes dared to tell him everything they knew.
With such a huge advantage, coupled with his suspicious character , he naturally uncovered shocking cases one after another.
Now, he had only been the Huai'an Censor for three years, and his predecessor and the previous Huai'an prefects were all sentenced to death. The governor of Fengyang, the prefect of Xuzhou, the prefect of Yangzhou, and even the governor of Henan and the governor of Shandong were all finished. Under these local officials, the assistant officials, clerks, and runners at all levels were all arrested.
Moreover, His Royal Highness Prince Xin was very particular about eradicating all evil when investigating cases: I don’t care what your original purpose was for bribing, anyway, bribery is a crime! As a result, merchants on both sides of the Huai River also suffered a lot - countless people were arrested and imprisoned by Zhu Youjian!
It can be said that during the three years that Zhu Youjian was in Huai'an Prefecture, Huai'an and surrounding areas were truly a place where officials were living in misery and wealthy merchants were frightened.
It is no wonder that the local gentry could no longer tolerate it and openly wrote a letter to the court, using words of praise to show their cards.
These memorials were forwarded by Zhu Youxiao yesterday. After reading them, Zhu Youdong gave them to Li Jia and Zhao Yan respectively - in fact, he wanted these two to break down the contents and tell them to his two sons.
However, the education of the prince is one thing. But should we support Zhu Youjian when he has created such a big mess in Huai'an?
"Old Wei, what do you think we should do about Huai'an?"
"Ah? Your Majesty, you asked me this question. I am only responsible for gathering information for the Emperor. I don't understand the governance of a country."
"It's okay, just speak from your heart."
"Yes. Your Majesty, I have shares in Honghe Industry because of your generous gift. The annual dividend is no less than 100,000 yuan, so I am not short of money and naturally will not be greedy. But I know that the products produced by various factories in our Ming Dynasty are changing with each passing day, and rare treasures from overseas are pouring in continuously. Although the salaries of officials in various places have increased three times, they can never live a luxurious life if they really rely on that little salary. Therefore, although the official style of our Ming Dynasty has improved a lot in recent years, there are indeed many people who ask for money."
"Well, go on."
"I think that because there are still too many people reaching out for bribes, we must continue to maintain high pressure on the fight against corruption."
"So, you support Prince Xin to continue?"
"Well, I think that Prince Xin is too radical. Huai'an has never been at peace. If the local gentry are pressed too hard, there will be chaos. Your Majesty, it would be fine if Prince Xin only made trouble in Huai'an , but the key is that he has also extended his hand to Yangzhou Prefecture. The salt merchants in that place have been the group that suffered the most because of Your Majesty's salt policy reform, and they have long been dissatisfied with the royal family. If they continue to force it like this, I am afraid..."
"What are you afraid of? Rebellion?"
"Hey, Your Majesty, the court is now strong and powerful, and I am not afraid of rebellion. I am just afraid that there will be trouble in Yangzhou Prefecture, which is a fertile place."
"Hahaha, Zhongxian, you are really only suitable for gathering information for me."
The most fundamental reason for the prosperity of Yangzhou Prefecture is that it is the starting point of the Jiangbei Canal. All goods from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River that need to be transported north must pass through Yangzhou. But now, river transportation has been replaced by sea transportation, and the railway between Beijing and Beijing will soon be opened to traffic: just like after the opening of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway in later generations, Yangzhou has declined at a speed visible to the naked eye. In this era, Yangzhou's desolation has only happened in the last ten years.
"Wei Zhongxian."
"The servant is here."
"Pass on my order. The East Factory and the Imperial Guards should send more personnel to strengthen the protection of His Royal Highness Prince Xin. The garrison in Nanjing should increase its alert level and be prepared to quell the rebellion. Although I am much gentler than Prince Xin in doing things, there is one thing that is the same as Prince Xin. That is, we must eliminate all evil!"
