Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 4: If the clear stream is not clear, it will destroy the ministers!
"I deserve to die!"

"I deserve to die!"

"I deserve to die!"

"The Ministry of Works is responsible for this matter. I am also responsible. I only wanted to build the palace for the emperor as soon as possible, but I didn't expect that the people under me would be so corrupt. I will kill them all when I return!"

Yan Shifan's face suddenly changed, and he raised his hands and slapped his cheeks hard.

At this point, Yan Shifan was really scared.

We are used to keeping detailed accounts, and keeping perfect detailed accounts, but we forget to tamper with the most basic big accounts.

There is no need to examine such accounts in detail. As long as one is not stupid, one can see that there is huge embezzlement.

If he continues to defend himself, he will be accused of fooling the cabinet, fooling the emperor, deceiving the emperor and harming the country. He can only push all the blame onto the people below him.

Fortunately, the fake accounts in the detailed ledger were done perfectly.

He then falsely accused himself of lax supervision. This "non-stick pan" approach made Xu Jie, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng very angry.

Xu Jie and Gao Gong were in charge of the Ministry of Revenue. They knew a thing or two about the wealth of the world, though they knew everything.

The top-quality timber from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan are all scarce in the capital. However, rare things are valuable, and it is not easy to live in the capital. In the capital, a beam of Sichuan timber costs more than a thousand taels of silver, and a square meter of timber costs ten taels of silver.

Last year, the expansion of Yan's mansion required the use of thousands of large pieces of timber and tens of thousands of cubic meters of wood.

After the construction of Yan Mansion was completed, a large amount of high-quality materials and wood from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan flowed into the city of Beijing. At that time, Xu, Gao and Zhang suspected it and ordered people to investigate, but they were unable to trace the source.

Now, everything was connected. The large materials and timber for the construction of the Yan Mansion and the large materials and timber in the capital market all came from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan transported by Yan Shifan under the pretext of building palaces for the palace.

To this end, Yan Shifan privately used ten warships and embezzled four million taels of silver for the palace.

A total of 5 million taels of silver from the Ming Dynasty were embezzled.

And the rewards are rich.

The 9,900 large pieces of wood from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan that were "lost" and "submerged" were worth 9.9 million taels of silver, and the 90,000 cubic meters of wood were worth 900,000 taels of silver, totaling 10.8 million taels of silver.

Yan Shifan used 5 million taels of silver from the imperial court to get 10.8 million taels of silver for himself. He was doing pretty good business.

When the incident happened today, Yan Shifan not only wanted to clear himself from it by accusing himself of negligence, but also wanted to kill all those who had obtained silver for him. He used the trick of "water dripping from the eaves passes on from generation to generation, and the new official does not check the accounts of the old official" to try to embezzle the tens of millions of taels of silver he had earned.

Its heart is awkward!

The fact that 300,000 Jiangnan civilians were working to build river embankments in Yingtian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang and receiving empty salaries pales in comparison to this matter.

Zhu Houcong's expression became even uglier.

Yan Song, who knew how much the emperor valued Qian Liang, finally spoke before his peers could criticize him and before the emperor could question him, and shouted, "Yan Shifan!"

"father!"

Yan Shifan's voice full of grievance rang out in the hall, and this voice was full of deep emotion.

"There is no such thing as 'father' here. This is a royal meeting. It's called a position when working."

Yan Song took over the conversation and scolded: "Repairing the river bank and the palace are all done by the Ministry of Works. If there is corruption, it is the Ministry of Works' responsibility, and it is your responsibility. You have to find out the silver that the Ministry of Works embezzled last year and the corruption that occurred. If you can't find it, you have to take out the silver!"

in the hall.

The thunder floating in Zhu Houcong's palm facing downwards disappeared again. Xu, Gao and Zhang looked at the father and son of the Yan family with six eyes.

The Ministry of Works had a deficit of 9.5 million taels of silver, and Yan Shifan earned another 10.8 million taels of silver. If all of this was made up, it would be 21.3 million taels of silver. According to the Prime Minister, Yan Shifan would not only have to spit out all the money he had eaten, but also all the money he had eaten before.

You know, last year the Ming Dynasty's annual tax revenue was only 45 million taels of silver, which is nearly half of the silver.

No one expected that Yan Song would act like this when an anti-corruption wave was about to take place. Some people knelt there and began to secretly look at Zhu Houcong's expression.

When the emperor's youthful appearance was reflected in his eyes, his pounding heart almost jumped out.

Your Majesty, the practice of Taoism was successful!

Yan Shifan was shocked and wanted to refute the words of his father, the Prime Minister, but his words were completely blocked in his throat and turned into a "yes".

Zhu Houcong could not help but praise in his heart this cabinet minister who had served the emperor the longest in the Ming Dynasty. He was really unique. In order to protect himself, he offered more than 20 million taels of silver without even blinking an eye.

On the other hand, looking at Yan Shifan who was disappointed and aggrieved, Zhu Houcong said with emotion: "Don't look at your father like that, you should learn from him."

"Yes."

Yan Shifan was startled and quickly lowered his eyes.

I was busy last year, but not only was it all in vain, I also lost a lot of money. My heart is bleeding.

While Xu, Gao, and Zhang were shocked by the old Prime Minister's clever tactics, they also couldn't help but regret not having taken advantage of the situation in time.

"Gao Gong, keep reading."

The holy sound came.

Gao Gong was shocked. He reached into the brocade box with trembling hands and took out the second account book. He subconsciously looked at Xu Jie and continued, "In February of the 39th year of Jiajing, spring planting began. In March, the people of Songjiang Prefecture, Suzhou, and Zhejiang donated 8,000 acres of high-quality farmland to the Xu family."

"In May, the Xu family spent 200,000 taels of silver in Suzhou and Zhejiang to purchase 5,000 mu of top-quality farmland and 10,000 mu of medium-quality paddy fields."

"In August, the government offices of Nanjing, Zhejiang, Suzhou, and Songjiang discussed with the local people the transaction of 10,000 mu of high-quality farmland, which was converted into 350,000 taels of silver. However, the Xu family sent 150,000 taels of silver to the government offices of the four places. Note: No need to share the silver with the people."

Forcing the people to surrender!

Forcing people to sell their spring seedlings at low prices!

Collude with local officials to seize people’s land!
The three scenes of seizing land immediately emerged in everyone's mind. The Xu family's greed was not in the court, but in the local area.

Yan Shifan immediately looked at Xu Jie. He didn't expect that this man with thick eyebrows and big eyes spent 250,000 taels of silver to acquire 23,000 acres of top-quality farmland and 10,000 acres of medium-quality paddy fields in Jiangnan.

The Yan family could hardly compare to the Xu family in terms of the speed at which they were acquiring land.

"emperor…"

Xu Jie was about to explain himself, but was interrupted by Zhu Houcong, who said, "Don't worry, Lord Xu, the reading is not finished yet."

Gao Gong looked at Zhang Juzheng again. Zhang Juzheng was stunned and almost fainted when he heard the words.

"In September of the 39th year of the Jiajing reign, Zhang Juzheng entered the cabinet. In October, Zhao Qian, the magistrate of Jiangling County in Jingzhou, arbitrarily gave 1,200 mu of top-quality official land to the Zhang family."

"In November of the 39th year of the Jiajing reign, Zhao Qian was promoted to the prefect of Jingzhou Prefecture."

"In December of the 39th year of the Jiajing reign, officials and merchants from six counties including Jiangling County, Liushou County, and Zhijiang County of Jingzhou Prefecture donated 30,000 mu of high-quality farmland and countless gold and silver to the Zhang family. Note: The Jingzhou Prefecture Customs collected 30,000 taels of tax last year."

"..."

(End of this chapter)