Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 214: Yan Song, the capable minister who plundered the wealth of the gentry in Jiangnan
Ever since Yan Song took over the post of Governor of Southern Zhili from Wang Yangming, he has been conducting his own experiments in corn cultivation.

During this agricultural experiment, he accumulated a lot of agricultural knowledge and became increasingly aware that there was such profound knowledge hidden behind each seemingly simple corn plant.

Over the years, although he still followed the rules and instructions of the central court on major policies, in the specific daily government affairs, he tried his best to benefit the people through what he had newly learned.

Yan Song was very glad that he had chosen to become a dean of the Imperial University of Peking, and as a result he learned a lot of new knowledge from the Emperor Zhu Houzhao, so that now as a local official he could also benefit the people.

Instead of being like the previous editors of the Hanlin Academy, who just stayed in the Hanlin Academy to gain experience, with no chance to make reports before the emperor or to work for the welfare of the people.

After Yan Song came to Nanzhili, he began to cooperate with the Royal Industrial Company to establish a fertilizer plant in Nanzhili.

Yan Song even personally organized people to set up the Imperial University of Peking Agricultural Science Institute in Nanzhili after applying for and obtaining permission from Emperor Zhu Houzhao, and used the newly refined converter steel from the Royal Industrial Company to manufacture agricultural machinery and fertilizer production equipment.

Because of this, during Yan Song's tenure as governor of Nanzhili, chemical fertilizers were promoted in Nanzhili, which greatly increased the grain output in Nanzhili. Moreover, it was not just the promotion of chemical fertilizers. The use of agricultural machinery and equipment and more scientific research and guidance on the physiological characteristics of crops also greatly increased the grain output in Nanzhili.

"Your Majesty, I would like to report that this year, the grain harvest in Nanzhili has increased by 30%, and the people are all excited. The annual tax has not increased, but the grain production has increased, so the people have more money, which is a sign of prosperity.

In addition, due to fertilizers, many barren lands have also produced crops. I hired refugees to plant them, and the proceeds were exchanged for treasury silver or for disaster relief. In addition, commerce has flourished. Now the people of Jiangnan are rich and the country is rich! This year, we hope to escort an extra 1 million shi of grain to Beijing..."

In his secret report to Zhu Houzhao, Yan Song wrote in great detail about his gains and losses in politics. What he did not know was that Zhu Houzhao would soon give him a more important task, which was to continue to implement new-style education reforms in Southern Zhili.

However, when Yan Song received the task of piloting new-style education reforms in Southern Zhili, he did not feel any pressure. He even felt that this was an opportunity to prove himself again. He believed that as long as he did a good job, the emperor would notice it.

Yan Song was not worried about the issue of education funding because the agricultural technology development he carried out in Southern Zhili had greatly increased his local fiscal revenue, and he was also very good at commercial investment and other ways of making money.

For example, after he took office as the governor of Southern Zhili and obtained the first additional fiscal revenue from the use of fertilizers, he took the lead in building a cement road from Suzhou to Nanjing.

It cost him a lot of money to build this road, but Yan Song turned it into a way to make money. He set up roadblocks on this cement road and set up a toll station every other county to collect lijin from merchants along the way.

In addition, Yan Song also ordered people to collect tolls from officials and gentry riding in horse-drawn carriages, and his reason was very simple, it was just for the purpose of maintaining the roads, and he did not charge any fees from civilians walking on the road.

Because the fees were collected by each county, and the local magistrate and the state government all had a share, each county also actively collected likin and tolls.

In addition, Yan Song also provided part of this income to the central Ministry of Revenue, which gave the central Ministry of Revenue extra income, so that neither the cabinet nor the Ministry of Revenue had any objections to Yan Song for this.

Even the censors of the Censorate and the six ministries' censors were bribed by Yan Song, so that up to now, whenever someone impeached Yan Song, there would be censors to protect him.

This was not enough. Yan Song also funded the great scholars in the Southern Zhili region under the pretext of revitalizing culture, causing these great scholars to shut up.

Yan Song was an official who took care of everything. Because of this, he took the opportunity to amass a large sum of money for the local treasury of Nanzhili, making all levels of government in Nanzhili very wealthy. That's why Yan Song dared to say in his memorials that a rich country would also be rich if the people were rich.

Of course, wealth cannot just appear out of thin air. If there are gains, there will naturally be losses.

Many gentry in Jiangnan still suffered losses.

After all, Yan Song could only bribe a few great Confucian scholars, not all of them. It just so happened that most of the people doing business in Jiangnan were gentry, and Guan loved to ride in carriages, especially the newly-produced four-wheel bearing carriages, which were mostly Jiangnan gentry. The gentry in Jiangnan suffered the most, so much so that they were very dissatisfied with Yan Song, and even secretly called him Yan Baopi.

However, Yan Song's position remains unshakable.

In the central court, although there were censors who spoke for the Jiangnan gentry and impeached Yan Song, there were also censors who took gifts from Yan Song and protected Yan Song, and their reasons were very sufficient.

The reason was that during his tenure as governor of Southern Zhili, Yan Song paid an additional one million taels of silver in taxes to the central court, which increased the central court's income by a large amount.

In addition, Yan Song also successfully provided relief to the people in the Nanzhili region. Several times when Nanzhili suffered local disasters, the central court did not need to allocate funds. In fact, in terms of educational reform and civil service examinations, the Nanzhili region has always done the best.

Because of this, the cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue had nothing to say, and praised Yan Song as a capable official. The emperor Zhu Houzhao himself naturally had nothing to say. He did not sympathize with the gentry in Jiangnan. He only issued an edict to warn Yan Song to spend more energy on the national economy and people's livelihood. The implication was that it was okay to make money, but the money must be used to benefit the people. Because of this, although Yan Song's reputation in Jiangnan was worse than Wang Yangming's when he was the governor of Nanzhili, his position was very stable. Not only did the people above him not touch him, but the officials below also supported him.

Only the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River hated Yan Song.

"Your Excellency, Ren Li, a student from Jiangpu County, has been accusing you of being a ruthless extortionist in the newspapers, robbing the people of their benefits and causing great resentment among the people. He also said that you have embezzled millions of silver coins, have thousands of concubines at home, and even spent 10,000 taels of gold to buy the right to be the courtesan of Wujiang Pavilion. This is nothing but fabrication. I think this kind of lunatic must be punished, otherwise it will be bad for your reputation as an official!"

Zhan Hui, the garrison commander of the Security Department, said with great concern that he had a good impression of a superior like Yan Song because he could make a fortune following such a superior. Therefore, he was also worried that Yan Song would lose his official position due to the false accusations of the scholars, and he would also lose the opportunity to gain more benefits from the gentry.

"Don't worry about him. I'm not worried about how these people bark. The court now only uses political achievements as the standard, and reputation is also based on the East Factory Censor. What these people say, the higher-ups will naturally not believe it. But I just have to explain to my wife again. These scholars are really strange. Whenever they frame someone, they always like to talk about his romantic debts! I'm afraid they only know or only like to fantasize about some romantic affairs. No wonder they have accomplished nothing!"

As Yan Song was speaking, his wife Ouyang rushed in and slammed the newspaper on the table: "Mr. Yan, what's going on? When did you spend ten thousand taels of gold to buy a prostitute?"

"Madam, why do you still believe these literati's nonsense? Don't you know who I am? Besides, satisfying you alone is tiring enough, so how can I have the energy to do everything for you?" Yan Song hurriedly coaxed Ouyang to get up, and after Ouyang left with relief, he asked coldly:
"What kind of business does this Ren Li family do?"

"In the spice business."

Zhan Hui replied.

"Your Majesty has issued an order that before the opening of the South Zhili Sea and the establishment of a customs office, the likin tax may be temporarily not abolished in order to train customs personnel, but it should not hinder the development of commerce.
Therefore, I have decided to reform the lijin collection system from next month. Goods with a value of less than 100 taels will be exempted from lijin. Food, cloth, salt and other items needed by the people will also be exempted from lijin in order to curb the rise in prices.

At the same time, spices, jewelry, etc. will be subject to a three-fold luxury tax on the basis of the existing lijin, in response to the argument put forward by Zhu En, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, to advocate frugality and avoid extravagance! "

It was obvious that Yan Song was not a truly tolerant person. He also had his own means of fighting back against the offensive behavior of the student Ren Li.

However, Yan Song's actions helped to curb the extravagant lifestyle in the south of the Yangtze River.

But at the same time, the wealth that would have been consumed by these wealthy businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River also flowed into the pockets of the Nanzhili government. When the imperial edict issued by the central court on the construction of high primary schools was delivered to Nanjing, Yan Song had enough funds to carry out educational reforms.

More than one hundred candidates who had studied at the Imperial University of Peking were all appointed by the Ministry of Personnel to serve as teachers in Southern Zhili. As the governor, Yan Song provided these teachers with sufficient financial support.

Not only that, Yan Song also relied on the wealth of Nanzhili to directly fund free tuition for the high primary school, and also directly issued subsidies, so that the common people would let their children take the high primary school examination in order to earn more income.

Because of this, the enrollment rate of the high primary school in Nanzhili was very high. In addition, because it had a certain commercial and industrial economic foundation, and because the newly appointed teachers and Yan Song himself had a background in Imperial University, the high primary school in Nanzhili was also the only modern school with a modern educational form.

Yan Song did not give up on the students who failed to get into the new-style schools. He independently established the Nanzhili Agricultural School and Industrial School, and recruited these students to train them as apprentices.

In addition, Yan Song responded to the call of the central court and, after obtaining permission from Zhu Houzhao, established the Central University in Nanjing. Modeled after the Imperial University of Peking, he established the second modern university in the Ming Dynasty. However, like the Imperial University of Peking, the main task of the Central University is still to train teachers.

Yan Song spent money like water in Nanzhili, so naturally he had to continue to make money. Relying solely on the likin system was not enough. He knew that the emperor was indifferent to the gentry and loved the common people very much, so he understood this thought and began to impose fines on those merchants and gentry in Jiangnan who did not dress according to etiquette in the name of continuing to advocate a civilized, frugal and etiquette-abiding style.

Even spitting and littering will be punished with fines or forced labor.

As private wealth increased and the commodity economy became more and more developed, the lives of gentry and merchants became more and more luxurious. Moreover, they had privileges such as exemption from military service and were often treated preferentially in law. Therefore, they had to abide by the hierarchy of etiquette and law established during the reign of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, which stipulated what kind of clothes and hats people of different levels should wear.

As a result, many students were fined for wearing red robes, and many wealthy businessmen were fined for wearing silk.

Anyway, Yan Song was desperately trying to make money in the name of following etiquette and laws.

Zhu En, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Rites who was the first to advocate frugality and adherence to etiquette, regretted it deeply after learning about this. He said that he never expected that his words of advice to the emperor would be used by Yan Song to extort money from the gentry.

(End of this chapter)