Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 299 Dealing with Shanxi Merchants
Qi Zhong looked at Jia Bao, the leader of the Duoluotu tribe, and pointed to the boundless sea: "You can go back to the grassland, then jump in and swim back!"

When Jiabao heard what Qi Zhong said, he felt deeply humiliated, because his Mongolian warriors were unparalleled in horse riding, but they could not swim at all. Now they could not even stand steadily on the boat, and were even drowsy, let alone swimming back. If they wanted to swim back, they would probably have been drowned or eaten by fish.

Jia Bao had no choice but to draw his knife and threaten Qi Zhong: "Master Qi, if you don't turn this ship around and take us back to the grassland, I will kill you!"

The Ming soldiers behind Qi Zhong also raised their guns.

But at this moment, a wave suddenly hit and the ship shook violently. The naval officer Qi Zhong and the Ming army behind him still stood steadily on the bow, while Jia Bao and several Mongolians behind him fell on the deck in a mess. After the wind and waves calmed down, they stood up again staggeringly.

Qi Zhong couldn't help but smile when he saw this: "Kanzhou Bo, you can't even stand steadily now, how can you threaten me? Stay in the cabin honestly. We will enter an area with more violent waves. If your people are overturned by then, I will not save them."

Immediately afterwards, Qi Zhong ignored Jia Bao.

……

In the present-day San Francisco area of ​​the American continent, Manduda, the leader of Ordos, now Shun Chenghou of the Ming Dynasty, finally landed after several months of bumpy journey. Looking at this unfamiliar continent, he now only wanted to find a land route to return to his former grassland.

Now he hates the Ming Dynasty so much!
Manduda wanted to kill Zhu Houzhao, the Ming Emperor who deceived him!

Because Zhu Houzhao told him that he would be granted a pasture with spring-like weather all year round, and the naive man actually believed it. At the same time, he was also impressed by the military power of the Ming Dynasty, so he took his tribe on the road of migration.

But he didn't expect that he and his tribe were embarking on a road of no return. Months of life at sea caused him to lose a lot of his tribe, but he couldn't do anything to the Ming army because they were either vomiting or fainting on the boat or were so weak that they couldn't even lift a knife.

The moment he set foot on the mainland, Manduda was naturally extremely excited. He led out his war horse from the cabin and swore that after he recovered his strength, he would lead his tribe to find a way back to the grassland on land.

But what Manduda didn't know was that he now had no chance of returning to the Eurasian continent unless he could go north to present-day Alaska while the ice was frozen and then find a way to cross the Bering Strait.

But for Manduda, who was not good at crossing the sea, this was obviously an impossible task.

However, Manduda was unaware of these terrible realities. He was now only determined to find a way back to the grassland, which led to him galloping across the continent for the next few decades.

of course.

For Manduda, he was just looking for a way home, but for the Spanish colonists and Indians, these knights from the East were truly the devils they feared.

Because the Mongolian cavalrymen of Manduda fully utilized their talents for looting on the American continent.

On the American continent, they did not have an army like the Ming army with advanced firearms, nor did they have strong castles. Even the Spanish colonists were caught off guard in front of them.

……

"Didn't the court demote Xia Yan because of the sharp drop in stock prices?"

Fan Yonghe, the big boss of Shanxi Commercial Bank, looked at Yang Feng in surprise. Yang Feng nodded and said, "Meng Bu Tang meant that officials like Sun Sui were too straightforward and hasty in their impeachment. Your Majesty is not someone who will be easily led by others."

Fan Yonghe stood up and walked a few steps in annoyance, and suddenly asked Yang Feng: "Tell me, what does our emperor want? Xia Yan offended so many officials and gentry when he cracked down on smuggling in Southeast Asia. Does he know that if he doesn't replace Xia Yan, the officials and gentry will replace him as the emperor?"

Yang Feng was shocked after hearing this and replied, "Master, please be careful with your words! How can you and I guess what the emperor is thinking? However, I have another thing for you to know."

Fan Yonghe gestured to Yang Feng to speak.

then.

Yang Feng said, "Hua Dang did not take Kaiping City, and he has withdrawn his troops and even apologized to the court. However, the court killed Hua Dang's envoy of apology. According to merchants in the north, a large number of guards pass through from Datong to Liaodong every day. It seems that the court is going to launch a large-scale expedition against the border towns."

Fan Yonghe turned around in astonishment and said, "We told Hua Dang all the details of the route from Xuanfu to Kaiping City, but he still couldn't get into Kaiping City. What do these Tartars do for a living?"

"I don't know the details, but I heard that my sons and grandsons did lead 100,000 Tartars, but their guns and cannons were no match for the government troops, so they had to give up the attack on Kaiping City. But now, His Majesty is furious and wants to launch a large-scale expedition against the Mongolian tribes. This will naturally disrupt trade and cut off the financial resources of our Shanxi merchants!"

After Yang Feng said this, Fan Yonghe couldn't help but sigh: "It's not a good thing that the imperial army is too strong!"

A few days later, Yang Feng summoned Fan Yonghe and said, "Master, something terrible has happened. News has been brought back from Guangzhou that the share prices of Shanxi Bank and Liaomeng Bank have plummeted, but the share prices of other banks have soared. In addition, Karakoram has been seized by government troops, and the Mongolian tribes have been killed or driven to the extremely cold land further north. As a result, the headquarters of Liaomeng Bank in Karakoram has also been confiscated by government troops, and the silver money we gave to Hua Dang has fallen into the hands of government troops!"

After hearing this, Fan Yonghe sat back in his chair and said, "Except for our company, all others have started to rise sharply. It seems that the court has taken action. Immediately contact Mr. Chenobei of the Portuguese. We will go to Southeast Asia immediately, quickly!"

Fan Yonghe realized that something was wrong and he had to escape before the court found evidence that he had violated the law.

However, at this time, a group of Jinyiwei had surrounded Fan Yonghe's residence, and Jinyiwei Captain Hao Yun also brought Qie Nuobei to Fan Yonghe: "The Fan Yonghe you are talking about is him, right?"

Chenobe, who was already tied up with chains, nodded: "It's him, it's him!"

Fan Yonghe was horrified at this time. He did not expect that the Jinyiwei had already caught Chenobei. He could guess that the Jinyiwei must have discovered the trafficking of Ming people. In a moment of desperation, he waved his hands and said, "No, it's not me. I don't even know you. How dare you, a Westerner, slander me!"

Hao Yun, a captain of the Imperial Guard, sneered, "Mr. Fan, do you think your excuses will work now? Chenobei, you can pretend that you don't know him, but you must know Qian Rong."

Qian Rong?

Who is Qian Rong?

Since Fan Yonghe started manipulating the stock market, he has secretly trafficked several batches of Ming Dynasty people, so naturally he couldn't remember who Qian Rong was.

Hao Yun still smiled faintly: "It doesn't matter if you can't remember it, there will always be documents."

As he spoke, Hao Yun waved his hand and said, "Search for me!"

After Hao Yun finished speaking, a group of Jinyiwei officers rushed over. At this time, Yang Feng hurriedly stopped them: "What are you doing? Our master is the boss of Shanxi Commercial Bank!"

Click!

Hao Yun chopped off Yang Feng's right arm with a knife: "If you interfere with law enforcement, I can kill you with one knife, believe it or not!"

"what!"

Yang Feng was already screaming in pain at this time. He never expected that the Jinyiwei would directly chop off his hand.

As the saying goes, when a scholar meets a soldier, it is difficult to explain the reason clearly. Even though Yang Feng and his boss Fan Yonghe are both good at calculating and even take the national interests into consideration, they still have no ability to turn the tide in front of the Jinyiwei who only question with swords.

Fan Yonghe was frightened by the knife that Hao Yun used to chop Yang Feng and the bloody arm that fell to the ground. He urinated hot urine that flowed out and soaked the hem of his robe.

After a while, the Jinyiwei in charge of the confiscation brought out a box of documents. One of them said to Hao Yun, "Sir, these are the documents that prove this man is trafficking the people of the Ming Dynasty. This is Qian Rong's contract."

Hao Yun took Qian Rong's contract from the Jinyiwei and looked at it. He couldn't help but laugh: "He is indeed a profiteer! He dares to do such a business, forcing the family to be ruined and even selling them out! He is really a ruthless person! Take him away!"

Fan Yonghe hung his head.

……

A few months later, Zhu Houzhao also received an investigation report from Guangdong and Guangxi on the previous stock crash. After learning that it was a group of Shanxi merchants from Shanxi Commercial Bank and Liaomeng Commercial Bank who were involved in the incident and were suspected of human trafficking, his expression turned cold and he directly replied:
"All property of the Jin merchants involved in this case will be confiscated, all those involved will be executed, and their families will be exiled to Mobei to build cement roads and serve for more than fifty years!"

After hearing this, Zhao Jian, the Minister of the Dali Temple, could not help but advise, "Your Majesty, isn't this too harsh? After all, they are only suspected of trafficking their own people. As for manipulating the stock market, it can't be said to be a crime after all."

"They dared to destroy their compatriots' families and even sold them. It is obvious that these people do not regard their own people as human beings. If this is the case, why should their own people regard them as human beings? Since they do not respect the human rights of the people of the Ming Dynasty, then the people of the Ming Dynasty do not have to respect their human rights. Their property rights, right to life, and right to freedom are completely deprived! They don't even have the right to commit suicide. The one called Fan Yonghe is the main culprit. He should be directly tortured to death to set an example!"

Zhu Houzhao knew that he had to punish more harshly now, because he knew that with the development of capitalism in the Ming Dynasty, if he did not use severe laws to deal with these Shanxi merchants, then in the future there would definitely be more unscrupulous businessmen who would ignore the interests of the country for their own benefit, and then drag the entire country and nation into a dangerous situation of destruction. This is what the Shanxi merchants did in history in the late Ming Dynasty.

……

But Fan Yonghe regretted it now, regretting that he had forgotten the majesty of the court and only cared about pursuing his own interests. Obviously, it was too late for him to regret now, the cold knife had already cut into his chest, and the tearing pain instantly swept through every neuron in his body, causing him to scream in pain, and the biting winter wind blew over, exacerbating his pain.

"Have mercy! Have mercy! I was wrong! I shouldn't have trafficked in my own people, I shouldn't have collaborated with the enemy, I shouldn't have manipulated the stock market! I have money, I am willing to donate all my property to forgive my sins! Woo woo!"

Fan Yonghe cried miserably, but no one would respond to him at this time. However, he was not alone. Also being tortured with him were a traitor named Jiang Han and two Tartar leaders named Hua Dang and Baersun.

Before Jiang Han, Hua Dang and their children were executed, Zhu Houzhao met with these three people once.

Because these three people were captured by the Imperial Guards from the Khorchin tribe. When they were taken back to the capital, Zhu Houzhao, who was also in Beijing, learned that the Imperial Guards had captured these three people, so he met these three people by the way.

When Hua Dang, Ba Ersun and Jiang Han were brought before Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Houzhao only asked one question: "Who among you is Hua Dang?"

At this time, an older Tartar couldn't help but hold his head high and said, "I am Hua Dang, Your Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Hua Dang apologizes to you again and hopes that you will forgive me. I am willing to continue to be a minister of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Forgive? Why should I forgive you? What qualifications do you have for me to forgive you? Drag you away and sentence you to death!"

Zhu Houzhao said and looked at his children and grandchildren: "Who are you?"

"He is Hua Dang's son and his grandson," Guo Rong on the side replied at this time.

Zhu Houzhao nodded: "Take them away as well and execute them!"

At this time, when there was only Jiang Han, the traitor, in front of Zhu Houzhao, Jiang Han started to cry first: "Your Majesty, please spare my life! I had no choice. I went out of the border to do business, but I never thought I would be captured by these Tartars. I wanted to defend my loyalty with my death, but I could not withstand the threats and inducements of these Tartars, so I had to serve the thieves!"

Zhu Houzhao knew that many Han Chinese compatriots in the Ming Dynasty had always been tough-mouthed but soft-hearted, and even instigated the entire foreign race outside the Great Wall to destroy their own country for their own interests. Now Jiang Han was naturally just one of them. Of course, Zhu Houzhao did not expose Jiang Han, but only said:
"Since you have surrendered to the bandits, it means that you are still a running dog of the Tartars. Do you think so?"

"Your Majesty! I have no choice. I wanted to emulate Su Wu, but I never expected the Tartars to be so cunning. I am helpless!"

Jiang Han cried and cried bitterly.

But Zhu Houzhao just shouted: "Answer me, have you surrendered or not? Have you become a running dog of the Tartars?!"

Seeing that Zhu Houzhao kept asking this question, Jiang Han could not escape for the moment, so he nodded: "Yes! But I really am..."

Before Jiang Han finished speaking, Zhu Houzhao just smiled coldly and ordered: "Since he was forced to surrender, but he did surrender, then I will give him a chance, give him a knife, and let him commit suicide to apologize!"

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, Jiang Han couldn't help but be shocked. He kept shaking his head. He didn't want to die at all. He didn't expect that even if he acted so pitifully, the emperor would not forgive him.

"Your Majesty, I am powerless, and I cannot even cut off my own head! I am willing to sacrifice my hair in exchange for my head, and I only ask Your Majesty to spare my life!"

Jiang Han begged for mercy.

Zhu Houzhao did not expect Jiang Han to be so spineless, so he just said: "Since you are powerless, take him away and sentence him to death. A special executioner will pick out the soft bones in his body one by one!"

Jiang Han was so frightened when he heard this that tears started streaming down his cheeks: "Your Majesty, spare my life! Spare my life!"

Zhu Houzhao naturally ignored it.

……

At this time, on the execution ground, Fan Yonghe, Hua Dang, Ba Ersun, Jiang Han and others were all screaming miserably.

But Zhu Houzhao, who was in the Royal West Garden at this time, naturally could not hear these miserable voices. As an emperor, his life was destined to be stained with the blood of many evil people.

Zhu Houzhao was also quite helpless about this. Sometimes he was also distressed, wondering why there was no effective way to curb people's greed and maintain basic respect between people.

For example, these Shanxi merchants, as businessmen, there is nothing wrong with doing business to make profits, and it is understandable that they took advantage of loopholes in the court to manipulate the stock market to make a fortune, but why did they sell their compatriots whose families were broken up to be slaves to the Westerners, and many of them were even their own relatives and children.

There are also these Tatars, especially Tatar leaders like Hua Dang. Because they have been loyal to the Ming Dynasty for a long time, they own the richest grasslands bestowed upon them by the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, because they are close to the border towns of the Ming Dynasty, they can completely rely on border trade with the Ming Dynasty and the grasslands bestowed by the Ming Dynasty to live a well-fed and well-clothed life.

But he was still greedy and wanted to plunder the Ming Dynasty, and was even indifferent to the lives of his own people to the point of using them as cannon fodder.

How cheap is human life in the eyes of people of this era.

Zhu Houzhao had to admit that when people were not enlightened, they were indifferent to other people's right to life and would disregard the life and death of others for their own interests.

Because of this, Zhu Houzhao can only use severe laws to warn everyone that disregard for the lives of others will be subject to the most severe punishment. Zhu Houzhao wants everyone to know that sometimes it is not just you who harms others. When you are harmed, the pain you suffer is no less than that of the people you harmed.

Zhu Houzhao knew that even as an emperor, he could not make people do good in a short period of time. As the ruler of the empire, he had to spend more energy on maintaining justice and the cause of development and progress of the empire. And persuading people to do good was something that needed to be done by people who were responsible for education and the dissemination of ideas.

In November of the 19th year of the Zhengde reign, Hu Ding, the governor of Fengyang, reported that floods had occurred after drought in Huai, Yang, Lu, Feng, Chu, and Xu prefectures, resulting in countless farmlands being submerged. Zhu Houzhao approved the cabinet's request for the Ministry of Revenue to exempt these prefectures from taxes and levies. At the same time, he urgently transferred 150,000 dan of grain and 300,000 dan of sweet potatoes and potatoes for relief.

Various disasters have often occurred in China since ancient times, and this is also the case with Zhu Houzhao's governance of the Ming Empire. In the 19th year of Zhengde, the entire empire has experienced two major drought and flood disasters, and both occurred in Nanzhili.

Fortunately, after the introduction of sweet potatoes and the opening up of countless arable land abroad, the Ming Dynasty's food supply has increased significantly, and it can deal with such drought and flood disasters calmly even if they occur.

However, the problem that Zhu Houzhao had to face was that frequent natural disasters not only affected the Ming Dynasty’s agricultural production, but also affected the Ming Dynasty’s treasury revenue.

Zhu Houzhao had to speed up the process of changing the situation in which the Ming Empire relied on agricultural production.

But in fact, after the Ming Dynasty's industrialization, the empire's dependence on agriculture became increasingly greater.

Especially after the 19th year of Zhengde, due to Hua Dang's provocation, the Ming Dynasty increased the number of troops in the north, and even continued to increase the number of troops. However, as the climate began to gradually turn colder, the troops outside the Great Wall in the north needed a lot of food.

However, the southern part of the empire, which had more arable land and higher yields, was becoming increasingly industrialized, and the proportion of agriculture was decreasing. Therefore, this required the Ming Dynasty to develop further south to obtain more arable land and produce more grain.

"Now Nanzhili is exempted from taxes, Jiangxi Ji'an and other prefectures are also exempted from taxes due to disasters, and Huguang and other places are also exempted from taxes due to floods and droughts. If we only focus on the two capitals and fourteen provinces (multiple Hetao), then we will not be able to increase more grain income this year. We must focus on other regions!"

Zhu Houzhao presided over a meeting in front of the emperor. The Privy Councilor of the Imperial Guard, cabinet ministers, and ministers of various ministries were all present. At the meeting in front of the emperor, Zhu Houzhao only made one point, that is, as the ruler of the Ming Dynasty, he could not limit his vision to the interior of the country.

Within the Great Wall, Yunnan and Guizhou basically need Sichuan's grain supply, the North can only be self-sufficient, and the grain can only come from Nanzhili, Huguang, Jiangxi and other places. Fujian and Guangdong have very little arable land. Now disasters have occurred in Nanzhili, Huguang, Jiangxi and other places. If the empire's only grain income depends only on the interior, it will be equivalent to nothing this year, and it may even be eating up the grain of the next year in advance.

But in fact, the empire did not spend money beyond its means, because the Grain Bureau was still able to store and plunder millions of shi of grain and fodder overseas and bring them to Beijing.

"Your Majesty is absolutely right. Now the court can no longer close the sea and isolate itself. Not to mention the customs revenue of the Maritime Customs Office which amounts to hundreds of millions of silver dollars every year, just take the grain imports. Without these grain imports, I'm afraid every family will have to eat sweet potatoes and potatoes this year. Moreover, there is the demand for grain for the military operations in the north. This requires us to open up more arable land overseas!" Zhang Cong, the second assistant of the cabinet, echoed.

"Now the Guards have built barbed wire and border walls to the Horqin area, and will extend them in the future. The Ministry of War is currently recruiting nearly 200,000 new soldiers in the disaster-stricken areas. These new recruits will naturally be deployed in the north to continue to open up territory for our Ming Dynasty. But this also means that the demand for food will become greater and greater. In order to increase the grain income of our Ming Dynasty, we must increase the territory in the south while opening up the northern territory!" The Minister of War Gui E also echoed.

At this time, the cabinet chief Kang Hai couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, if this is the case, I think why not stop sending troops to the north, since sending troops to the north is not very meaningful."

"You don't know, Prime Minister, that if these disaster victims are not enlisted in the army to go to the north to open up territory for the Ming Dynasty, they will become bandits in their hometowns. I have done some calculations and found that before the Zhengde Dynasty, every time a disaster occurred, despite the court's relief, bandits would appear, because once the people's farmland was flooded or drought struck and they had no land to plant, they would become bandits. However, after the Zhengde Dynasty, every time a disaster occurred, the number of bandits decreased by more than 80%, but the number of troops also increased sharply!
This is better than increasing the number of bandits. Increasing the number of troops means increasing military pay. The empire is not short of money, but it lacks land for the people to cultivate. Increasing military pay will not have much impact on the empire, but increasing the number of bandits will cause the Ming Dynasty to collapse."

Gui E's words also made Zhu Houzhao and the officials present agree. But at this time, Xia Yan, who had been promoted to one of the three assistants of the cabinet, couldn't help but say:
"Your Majesty, speaking of the amount of arable land, I recently received a memorial from Liyang Marquis Su Chen, the father-in-law, who begged Your Majesty to grant him more than 200 hectares of farmland for his future retirement. These nobles often ask the court for land grants, which has caused great harm to the people, and the court will also suffer a great loss of income. Therefore, Your Majesty, please be cautious about these nobles' requests for land grants."

Zhu Houzhao also knew that it was very common for nobles to request land grants, not just nobles, but also princes. These princes and nobles would obtain more and more arable land through land grants and donations, thereby squeezing the living space of the people. Now Zhu Houzhao had to handle this matter carefully.

"Since I have said that we want to open up farmland overseas, then I will give him over 200 hectares of land in the southern part of America! He can borrow money from the court and then hire people to cultivate the land!"

After Zhu Houzhao said this, other officials all praised His Majesty for being wise, and being able to think of using such a method to fool these nobles.

Thanks to my book friend I Love Flying Bird for giving 100 Qidian coins

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(End of this chapter)