Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 297 Burn
Looking at the stocks in his hands which were as worthless as waste paper, Qian Rong, who was sitting on the stone railing, felt colder than ice. He thought about how he had spent all his family wealth and finally made some money by selling medicinal herbs at sea in Guangdong and Guangxi, but he never expected to lose it all in the stock market.

He didn't know how to face his people because his net worth suddenly rose to one million silver dollars but now he was suddenly penniless, so he chose to jump into the river and commit suicide.

thump!
Qian Rong was ready to say goodbye to this world.

"Another one seeking death, pull him out!"

Yang Feng, who was standing on a civilian soft sailboat, happened to see Qian Rong and hurriedly ordered people to fish Qian Rong out.

When Qian Rong woke up, he found himself in a luxuriously decorated cabin. A middle-aged man who looked very wealthy was reaching out his fat hand to the little goldfish in the glass tank. After touching it for a while, he asked, "How much money did you lose?"

Qian Rong knew that the man was asking him, so he subconsciously replied, "More than 1.2 million, the business has gone bankrupt, more than a hundred people have no income, and they still owe more than 200,000 in bank debt."

After saying this, Qian Rong couldn't help sobbing again. As the saying goes, men don't shed tears easily. After 30 years of hard work, he took advantage of the empire's lifting of the sea ban and the low-interest loans to the people. During the Zhengde period, he jumped from a waiter in a medicine shop to a wealthy businessman in Liaodong, supporting hundreds of families. He also donated money to three community schools in his hometown and sponsored more than a dozen poor students. Even the former county magistrate was polite to him.

But now everything has vanished. In the spirit of helping the world, he doesn't know how to face the hundreds of families that depend on him for their livelihood. He also regrets very much that he should not have ignored the old man's advice and invested all the profits from the pharmacy in stocks.

"Even if you have lost so much, there is no need to commit suicide. I, Fan, can help you pay off your bank debt, and I can also take over the people in your business for you. However, you have to sell yourself to me!" Fan Yonghe said.

"Sell it to you? But I am a registered citizen of the Ming Dynasty, a Han Chinese. The constitutional outline of this dynasty stipulates that it is not allowed to buy and sell citizens as slaves! Citizens of the country cannot sell themselves into slavery!" Qian Rong usually pays attention to politics and is relatively clear about the contents of the constitutional outline.

"You don't have to worry about this. You sold yourself anyway. If the court wants to punish you, it will only punish the buyer. You, the seller, will only be fined at most," Fan Yonghe said, adding, "You are already a worthless life anyway. You can't want your descendants to be implicated in your debts."

Qian Rong was still a little hesitant.

Seeing this, Fan Yonghe continued to laugh and said, "If you don't want to, then I can only chop you into meat, make it into canned food, and sell it to the Japanese!"

Qian Rong was also a little scared when he heard this, especially after seeing Fan Yonghe's sinister smile, he had no choice but to nod: "Okay, I'll sell myself!"

"Give him a contract! Have him sign it! Brand him, and take him out to sea in three days, and sell him with other Han Chinese to the Portuguese (Spanish) who come to take over the goods! Cantonese people are always smart and good at business, and they have heard that our Ming Dynasty has the most new trade, so they will definitely be willing to pay a high price to buy it! In addition, continue to buy people in the name of recruiting workers. We can make a lot of money by selling these people to the West."

As Fan Yonghe spoke, he took out a telescope and looked at the Guangzhou city lined with sailboats. When he saw the "Xia" flag, he couldn't help but sneer and asked, "Tell the people who stayed in Guangzhou Prefecture to cooperate with Xia Bu Tang. Don't let him think that we Shanxi merchants really don't know how to sympathize with the people in need!"

"Don't worry, sir. I've already given the order!" Yang Feng replied.

"Porridge is available! Porridge is available! Manager Fan of Shanxi Merchants has just transported 3,000 dan of new grain. Those who don't have money to buy grain can come and get some porridge!"

"Recruiting! Recruiting! Yonghe Commercial Bank is recruiting miners from Southeast Asia, three yuan per month!"

At this time in Guangzhou City, as soon as Xia Yan got ashore, he saw that the few businesses were still hiring workers and providing porridge. He couldn't help but stop for a moment: "Send someone to ask the Jinyiwei here, where these businesses come from?"

……

Capital.

Royal West Garden.

"Your Majesty ascended the throne at a young age, eliminated treacherous officials in the court and the country, promoted great undertakings, exempted corvée labor, reduced taxes for the people, and even won the military feat of sweeping away the Tartars in the north. His great talent and strategy are comparable to the wise rulers of ancient times such as Yao, Shun, Tang, Wen, and Wu!"

The chief minister of the cabinet, Kang Hai, took a memorial signed by hundreds of retired officials and Confucian scholars and began to read it.

At this time, Zhang Cong, the Deputy Minister of the Cabinet, who was listening nearby, couldn't help but smile secretly, thinking that these civilian officials and gentry knew how to flatter His Majesty at the beginning. But when he saw the Emperor Zhu Houzhao's frown, he guessed that His Majesty was obviously not impressed by this kind of flattery.

"We are fortunate to have such a wise ruler. Although I have retired to recuperate in the mountains, I cannot help but worry about him. Although I should not interfere in government affairs, I cannot ignore the rise and fall of the world and let it go to waste. Since the Zhengde period, the court has promoted industry and commerce and lifted the ban on sea trade. Officials and businessmen have been in collusion with each other, and the people have forgotten morality and regarded farming as a shame. The rich and powerful have competed with each other in luxury, and the poor have competed with each other. Food prices have soared, and thefts have occurred frequently. The law is stricter on the gentry than on the common people, so the common people are unscrupulous and the rich merchants rely on their wealth to interfere in government!"

When Kang Hai read this, Zhu Houzhao was quite moved. He had to admit that these were all bad phenomena existing in the Ming Dynasty. With the development of capitalism, the pursuit of luxury, laziness and the collapse of etiquette were inevitable.

In particular, the soaring grain prices destroyed agricultural civilization, but Zhu Houzhao was also trying his best to curb this phenomenon. All major customs offices strictly prohibited grain exports. In order to increase agricultural income and protect arable land, taxes were continuously reduced. As for collusion between officials and businessmen, the law was repeatedly strengthened. But now these retired officials were still criticizing his own government. Zhu Houzhao didn't know what purpose these people had, so he had to endure his temper and continue listening.

"Since the advent of steam spinning machines and looms, people's lives have become even more difficult. The cloth produced by the people is too rough, short and narrow to be sold. Women are lazy and have nothing to do in production. Men are forced to abandon filial piety and go to the city to make a living. They work hard all day long on brick, tile and cement projects. Families with land plant cotton and mulberry trees on a large scale. Since last year, there has been constant famine in Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Shandong and other places. In Nanzhili, fathers and sons have even eaten each other, and the streets are full of corpses!"

Zhu Houzhao fell silent. When he read the content of the joint memorial submitted by these officials and gentry to this point, he could say that it pointed out the negative phenomena since the implementation of the new policy.

Zhang Cong, the deputy minister of the cabinet, could not help but bow his head. He had to admit that these were indeed facts. Since the opening of the sea, people in Jiangnan have been planting cotton and mulberry trees. The powerful families have forced tenant farmers to change rice to mulberry trees. In addition, there was a severe drought last year and some local officials were unable to provide disaster relief, so there was a tragic famine. There was a woman named Liu from Wu who ate her four-year-old child, and the centurions Yao Chen and Wang Tang sold their mothers for their sons. Cao Hong, a remnant of the army, killed his brother with his younger brother, and Wang Ming killed his father with his son. There was no humanity. There were earthquakes and fog, and the stench could be smelled for thousands of miles. Rebellions broke out everywhere... and so on.

However, the cabinet had already ordered the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue to issue 30,000 dan of grain and 200,000 dan of sweet potatoes for relief, which would not destroy the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. However, now that these officials and gentry brought up the issue, he had to admit that these contents were indeed the most severe blow to the new policy!
Zhang Cong discovered that Emperor Zhu Houzhao was already feeling somewhat ashamed, and he also knew that the words jointly spoken by officials and gentry had made this reform-minded emperor begin to doubt the new policies he had worked so hard to implement.

Zhu Houzhao did admit that these officials and gentry had criticized him harshly and hit the nail on the head. He was now almost struggling with whether he should issue a self-criticism edict and even began to doubt whether he was really the second Wang Mang. If he continued like this, it would only bring chaos to the world.

But at this time, Zhu Houzhao only heard Kang Hai continue to read: "We all know that Your Majesty has the new policy of reform and elimination of malpractices, and has inherited the will of the previous emperor, and wants to benefit the people of the world. However, the malpractices of the new policy are not Your Majesty's fault, but a group of flatterers who took advantage of Your Majesty's youth and eagerness to deceive Your Majesty into abandoning agriculture and focusing on commerce. There are Zhang Cong inside and Wang Shouren and Xia Yan outside. They appoint people based on personal connections and are only interested in profit. They have no morality towards foreign countries, bully their neighbors and kill officials and gentry at will, act tyrannically instead of preaching benevolence and righteousness, and mislead the world with their unorthodox ideas!

For example, when Zhang Cong was in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, he did not emphasize moral character when selecting officials, which led to rampant corruption!

For example, Xia Yan, who arbitrarily killed officials and nobles from neighboring vassal states, almost wanted to be the king of the sea, but the loss of the people's wealth in Guangdong and Guangxi and the collapse of the stock market were actually caused by his incompetence;
For example, Wang Shouren, who commanded hundreds of thousands of troops and banned merchants and closed the borders, but allowed all the borders to open as usual, so that the Tartars disguised themselves as merchant caravans and almost broke through Kaiping and went down to Xuanfu! His crime must be punished! Your Majesty has been in the deep palace for a long time, and it is inevitable that you will be bullied by villains..."

When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he gradually realized that something was wrong. He thought, since they were discussing the gains and losses of his administration, how did it turn into impeachment? These officials and gentry had impure motives. After all, they didn't really care about the lives of the common people. They just used this as an excuse to attack people they disliked.

Meng Chun, who had been silent, saw the impatient look on Zhu Houzhao's face, and couldn't help but sigh secretly, thinking: "It's all in vain, all in vain! Sun Sui and others submitted a petition for the people, so why impeach them? Don't you know that the new policy can be achieved today because of your majesty's leadership? If it is really to criticize the current ills, your majesty may change it, and even think that Zhang Cong, Xia Yan and others are difficult to reuse. But now it is mentioned like this, which means that Zhang Cong, Xia Yan and others are acting for the people, but they are attacked by the powerful!"

Meng Chun knew that he could not stand up at this time, so he let Kang Hai finish reading the memorial.

Zhu Houzhao had also finished listening to the contents of the memorial at this time. He only asked Kang Hai to hand the memorial to him, and then walked to the candlestick, placed the memorial signed by hundreds of retired officials next to the candle and lit it. The flames gradually devoured the memorial, and gradually turned the memorials written by hundreds of retired officials into ashes.

"I will just pretend that this incident never happened. I don't want you to use the shortcomings of the new policy to attack each other! Xia Yan, Wang Shouren, Zhang Cong and others were recommended by the court officials. I chose them. Whether they are treacherous or loyal, future generations will judge them. I am no exception. However, if you want to use the corpses of common people to stir up factional disputes in the court, you are truly harming the country and the people!"

Zhu Houzhao threw the burning memorial into the basin.

The Minister of Personnel Meng Chun could not help but widen his eyes. He knew that the officials and gentry had obviously misjudged His Majesty's dragon vein, but he did not expect that His Majesty would directly burn the memorial.

Kang Hai hadn't expected it either, so he just asked, "Your Majesty is right, but this, this memorial, after all, has hundreds of names."

Zhu Houzhao interrupted him and said, "Since he is a retired official, he has no right to participate in politics! Why not burn it? Can he really represent the constitution of our Ming Dynasty?" Kang Hai nodded in agreement.

Zhang Cong breathed a sigh of relief and secretly admired the Emperor Zhu Houzhao for being able to distinguish between the pros and cons. He knew that this was not as simple as discussing current affairs, and that burning the memorial would undoubtedly be a loud slap in the face to some important officials in the court who had ulterior motives, letting them know that the Emperor was not so easily fooled.

Although Meng Chun was disappointed, he did not admit that he dared to despise His Majesty. At the moment, he could only sigh that expecting those officials and gentry who made a fortune by taking advantage of some loopholes in the new policy to help him maintain Confucian orthodoxy was no different from expecting thieves not to steal beautiful jade.

……

Regarding the affairs in Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhu Houzhao did not transfer Xia Yan back, nor did he demote Xia Yan. He knew better than anyone that the stock price phenomenon was ultimately due to his lack of knowledge of finance. After all, he was just a science and engineering student in the future, not a stock god like Buffett. He only had a superficial understanding of modern things such as stocks and securities. Fortunately, he had the help of business geniuses of this era such as Xu Jing and mathematicians such as Wang Wensu to build the securities and financial industry of the Ming Dynasty.

But now, some people with ulterior motives have exploited loopholes in the rules he set. Zhu Houzhao feels that this is inevitable. Xia Yan, a civil servant, could not have noticed these drawbacks in advance, but there could be no more suitable person to replace Xia Yan to deal with the stock market crash in Guangdong and Guangxi.

However, Zhu Houzhao still sent Xu Jing, and asked Xu Jing to bring a huge asset of 50 million silver dollars to rescue the market in order to stabilize the Ming Dynasty's financial market. At the same time, he also asked Xu Jing to provide some assistance to Xia Yan. After all, in terms of business and money speculation, as the father of Ming Dynasty's bank, Xu Jing was much more experienced than Xia Yan, and he also knew more about those tycoons who were greedy and ruthless behind the scenes.

Zhu Houzhao was the emperor and could not go to Guangdong and Guangxi in person. Even if he went in person, he would need the help of Xu Jing and others. Moreover, he still had the war in the north to deal with.

Doyan Weihuadang colluded with the Tumed and Khorchin tribes and sent an army of 100,000 to attack because he refused to increase the tribute. This was undoubtedly a provocation to him. As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he had to severely punish these Tartars!
What Xu Jing, who was already in his fifties, would never have thought that in the original history, he only lived to be in his thirties. However, in this life, because he was highly valued by the emperor, he was full of vigor and vitality and was still as strong as a bird even in his forties. His hair was full of black, but his belly was getting bigger and bigger, just like a woman who was pregnant for ten months.

"Zhifu! When you go to Guangdong and Guangxi, how do you plan to assist Xia Butang in handling the affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi?" At this time, his good friend Tang Bohu rushed to the dock and asked Xu Jing.

"Of course, I will make those unscrupulous merchants lose all their money! Don't forget, His Majesty gave me the power to mobilize the Jinyiwei at will. I am still the commander-in-chief of the Jinyiwei. If I, Xu Jing, cannot defeat them, I will commit suicide in the Pearl River without the need for the censor to impeach me!"

Xu Jing said, then he bowed and said, "Goodbye!"

"Wait a minute, you just let them lose all their money, you have no plan to bring them to justice?" Tang Bohu asked.

"That is the authority of Xia Butang. However, I would advise Xia Butang not to do this, because they are just taking advantage of the loopholes in the new policy, but they have not violated the laws of our Ming Dynasty. You and I have followed His Majesty for many years, so we should understand that the dignity of the law cannot be violated!"

Xu Jing said, "Moreover, the fundamental reason for the incident in Guangdong and Guangxi this time is not their fault but ours. We, the planners for Your Majesty, did not realize these loopholes and were deficient in formulating the rules, which allowed them to take advantage of them. Now, what I want to do is to try to fill these loopholes and re-formulate the rules, and it would be best if these profiteers can also participate. If they want to avoid being taken advantage of in the future, they must make the rules more perfect!"

"What? You actually want to change the rules and involve those unscrupulous businessmen. Do you know what they have done to force the people of my Ming Dynasty to commit suicide or even be sold into slavery? They deserve to be severely punished. Besides, the rules are confirmed by His Majesty, so how can they be changed at will?" Tang Bohu said.

"Your Majesty is also a human being, and it is inevitable that there will be negligence!" Xu Jing replied.

"No, Your Majesty is a god, Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, and you are endowed with wisdom. Otherwise, you wouldn't know so much. Even your poetry is better than yours and mine. How can you question Your Majesty!" Tang Bohu became a little annoyed.

"Bo Hu, your Majesty himself said that he is not a god. I don't want to argue with you. I believe your Majesty will support me!"

Xu Jing continued.

"Even if your majesty is a human being, he is not an ordinary person!" Tang Bohu shouted loudly. What he couldn't accept now was not that Xu Jing wanted to change the rules of the stock market, but that Xu Jing actually conflicted with himself in his evaluation of your majesty.

Of course, he now had to start thinking about how the Emperor, whom he had served for almost twenty years, would evaluate him. Was he a God or a human as he said? What was the difference between a God and a human?

……

Zhu Houzhao was not like Tang Bohu and other literary youths who had nothing to do after eating and were obsessed with meaningless things every day. Now he had already started his journey north. Last night he had chatted with Yang Yiqing, Gui E and other court officials who were familiar with border affairs. He was deeply aware that he must take advantage of this opportunity of Huadang's massive attack to systematically deal with the affairs of the entire north.

At present, the commodity economy in the South is developing at an increasingly faster speed, but more and more drawbacks are emerging, and it has even begun to gradually affect the North. A large number of dry fields in the North have begun to be used by farmers to grow cotton. In addition, with the cooling climate, the empire's ability to control the North will be greatly affected. The empire may even have to abandon its strategy of governing the North and opening up its northern territory in order to stabilize the southern economy.

To this end, Zhu Houzhao had to find a new way for the Ming Dynasty to advance together from north to south.

And war may be an opportunity.

"Your Majesty, the troops of Li Min, the Marquis of Fengcheng, have left Jizhou, the troops of General Zhao Zhen have left Yulin, and the troops of General Lu Gang have reached Daning. In addition, General Wang Shouren has also mobilized the border troops of Datong, Jiliao, Taiyuan and other places to reinforce Xinghe. Basically, the entire Xuanfu area is divided into two routes. One route is the border troops from various places that General Wang Shouren is mobilizing now. This is under the command of the front army. Although Hua Dang is coming fiercely, it will not be a problem for the front army to repel Hua Dang.

But what we are worried about now is that once Hua Dang is repelled, he will take the opportunity to plunder the border towns, making it difficult for our border troops to cope with it. Therefore, the guards currently mobilized can be used as the rear army, marching towards the Duoyan Guard's nest along the arc of Daning, Changyang, and Guangning, first destroying Duoyan Guard, and then sweeping north to Khorchin;
As for the Tumed tribe, I think we can order the Yongshebu tribe, the Ordos tribe and the Jurchen governor-general Suheite and others to encircle and suppress the Tumed tribe to the east!

Since they have pledged their loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, they must work for the Ming Dynasty. This way, they can kill each other, and the Ming Dynasty can kill with a borrowed knife. If they are unwilling to follow orders, then the Ming Dynasty will have an excuse to destroy them in the future!"

Yang Yiqing pushed a wheelbarrow to Zhu Houzhao and pointed at the sand table and said.

Zhu Houzhao nodded and said, "As you said, immediately issue an edict to the Yongxiebu, Ordos, and Suheite tribes, and ask them to send troops to suppress the Tumed tribe immediately!"

As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he could not help but look out the window at the cement road that led directly to Xuanfu, and could not help but ask Yang Yiqing: "Yang Qing, have you ever blamed me for destroying your legs for the sake of the law?"

Yang Yiqing was stunned after hearing this: "Thunderbolts and raindrops are all the grace of the emperor. Your Majesty did not abolish the law because of personal feelings. This is what a wise emperor does. I have no complaints. Accepting bribes is my crime and I should have accepted it. Your Majesty did not use me in military affairs because of my disabled body, my personal morality and my criminal behavior. I am grateful enough, how dare I complain."

"It's a good thing that you think so. What do you think? If this cement road connects Liaodong, Jizhou, Xuanfu and even Kaiping, Yingchang and Helin, and we build high walls, iron nets, and immigrate people to build cities, and then we rule these Tartars separately, can we eliminate the threat from the Tartars in the north?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

"Your Majesty, this is a good plan, but it will take a long time. I think Your Majesty should give these Tartars a heavy blow now, and it is best to use the butcher's knife to let them know who is the real leader of the grassland. Otherwise, these Tartars will still not obey the rule of our Ming Dynasty. The Tartars have always respected the strong. Your Majesty, if you kill them first and then rule them, and disrupt the various tribes, you can become the common leader of the world!"

Yang Yiqing suggested based on his many years of experience in border towns.

Zhu Houzhao nodded: "You are right. The siege of Kaiping this time also made me realize this. Although the Tartars are spread all over the north and are difficult to eliminate, sometimes we have to use tough measures to make them obey our Ming Dynasty!"

As Zhu Houzhao was speaking, Jinyiwei Guo Rong came running over and said, "Your Majesty, the report from General Wang Shouren is that the leader of the Duoluotu tribe, the commander-in-chief Jiabao, intends to betray the Duoyan Guard and submit to the Ming Dynasty, and he wants to see Your Majesty!"

Zhu Houzhao took the memorial and read it, then gave it to Yang Yiqing. He couldn't help but laugh and said, "It seems that since the little prince was skinned alive by me, the Mongolian tribes have become more scattered than before. It's really difficult for a descendant of Genghis Khan's general to become the ruler of Mongolia!"

After seeing this, Yang Yiqing couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty wants to see this Jiabao?"

Zhu Houzhao nodded and said, "Not only do I want to meet him, I also want to change his status from aboriginal to official, build a palace for him, draft an imperial decree, change the area under the jurisdiction of the Duoluot tribe to Yingchang Prefecture, promote him to the title of Kanzhou Earl, and grant him the title of Kanzhou County (now Canberra, Australia) in Australia of the Ming Dynasty!"

"This is obviously a promotion for someone, but what's the difference between this and exiling him? Your Majesty is so cruel!" Yang Yiqing couldn't help but complain in his heart after hearing Zhu Houzhao's decree.

(End of this chapter)