Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

Two executioners stepped forward.

One person covered Min Zishun's head with a black cloth bag to prevent his death from being too gruesome; this was a dignified aspect unique to hanging.

Another person tied Min Zishun to the execution post while he was kneeling to prevent him from struggling and making mistakes during the hanging.

Hanging is indeed hanging.

The two executioners each held a long wooden stick, and the two sticks were tied together in the middle with a rope.

The rope was also made of two strands, clamped around the prisoner's neck.

The executioner twisted the wooden stick in opposite directions, and the two ropes gradually tightened together, eventually suffocating the condemned man to death.

Compared to beheading, the process is extremely painful.

Min Zishun struggled and twisted with all his might, but because he was tied to the execution post, he couldn't move at all.

Finally, it stopped moving completely.

"Bring the next one over!"

That man was none other than Han Song, Qian Chen's trusted confidant, a former minor official from Xicheng County, Jinzhou.

While in Hanzhong, he had already assisted in managing money and grain, and had also worked as a scribe under Wen Huanzhang.

Even back in Hanzhong, Han Song had already begun embezzling, but at the time it was just small-scale and went undetected.

Han Song was forced to kneel down, and when he saw Min Zishun's body being carried away, he collapsed on the spot and couldn't even kneel up straight.

Li Hanzhang, Qian Chen, Linghu Xu, and others silently left the execution ground.

They all had a good relationship with Min Zishun, and today they came to send Old Min off on his final journey.

Moreover, since Zhao Yuan sent them, it could be seen as a warning.

Li Hanzhang and Qian Chen were both lucky; the former became the first Minister of Personnel, and the latter became the first Minister of Revenue.

These are all positions where it's very easy to get caught.

However, they were transferred to the cabinet early on and have long since stopped getting involved in specific affairs, and they also strictly control their families.

Even if something was done in the past, the imperial court has drawn a timeline, and as long as it is not repeated in the future, it will not be investigated.

Therefore, even if they have countless protégés and former subordinates, as long as they are not found to have engaged in power-for-money transactions, they will not be involved in various cases.

Several of their associates were arrested this time!

Chapter 3933 The Great Ming Moon Report

The promotions of Li Hanzhang and Qian Chen to three different titles were stripped, which can be considered a punishment and warning to them.

Qian Chen turned around one last time to look at Han Song, who was about to be beheaded. Han Song was a trusted confidant whom he had personally trained.

"This bastard even dared to touch the disaster relief grain, he truly deserves to die!" Qian Chen said through gritted teeth.

Li Hanzhang didn't want to talk about such things and said dejectedly, "Let's go to my house for a drink. After this, we can handle official business well tomorrow and not let such things disturb our mood."

Qian Chen shook his head: "Let's drink another day."

Linghu Xu and the others also bowed and took their leave, for several of their old friends were to be executed today.

The group returned to the city by carriage. As they passed a bookstore, they heard a clerk standing at the entrance hawking his wares.

"The Great Ming Monthly Report, the Great Ming Monthly Report. The official gazette that was previously only for officials can now be bought and read by everyone."

"Fifty-five coins a share, not even enough for three meals, yet it allows one to know about world affairs..."

Prices in the capital were high. If you ate three meals a day, the food would cost forty or fifty coins, and even if you were frugal, it would still cost twenty or thirty coins.

From this perspective, selling a newspaper for fifty-five coins isn't really expensive.

If the issuance volume increases in the future, the cost can continue to decrease.

The government office had free newspapers to read, but Li Hanzhang and others didn't buy them, though many ordinary people were drawn to them.

Today is a ten-day weekend, and students are also on holiday. Many scholars are strolling along the bookstore street.

Before the waiter could finish shouting, more than a dozen scholars gathered around.

Upon seeing this, the bookstore owner next door immediately regretted not having stocked up on newspapers.

Regardless of how many it can sell, this thing can attract customers; who knows, someone might buy a book or a pen while they're at it.

The owner of another bookstore went out himself and shouted, "I have newspapers too! I have newspapers too!"

The bookstore was now surrounded by layers of people.

Customers who couldn't squeeze in heard that there were newspapers nearby and quickly ran over.

Lu You and a few friends were browsing the book market today, and also bought some ink sticks and paper.

They were all well-off, and almost everyone bought a newspaper, reading it as they walked.

Instead of reading the specific reports directly, I focused on the newspaper's binding and layout.

It's quite fresh.

In the early Song Dynasty, official gazettes were mainly handwritten. However, due to Zhao Yuan's improvement of movable type printing, they were switched to printing during the mid-to-late reign of Emperor Huizong.

However, the layout was never well-done until the founding of the Ming Dynasty, when it was slightly improved.

The layout of this newspaper is now remarkably clean and refreshing.

The title is in a larger font size, while the body text is in a smaller font size, and horizontal and vertical lines are used as separators, which is very reader-friendly.

Nowadays, printing uses "Mingti" typeface, also known as "Songti" typeface, and there are several standardized font sizes and punctuation marks.

These printing standards were promoted during Wen Huanzhang's tenure.

It was initially used in printing official letters and textbooks, and was gradually imitated by private booksellers.

They spontaneously adopted official standards, having artisans create movable type, which greatly improved printing efficiency and quality, and also reduced printing costs.

"Hey, there are two more poems here!" Lu You exclaimed.

Wang Lianqing asked, "Where?"

Lu You said, "The second to last page."

The group quickly flipped through the pages, only to hear Hong Mai shout, "It's His Majesty's new poem!"

Because the newspapers had just been delivered, even the bookstore owners and clerks hadn't had a chance to read them carefully yet.

Chapter 3934 Opening the Wise

"The trees by my inkstone-washing pond, their blossoms faintly tinged with ink. They need no praise for their beauty, only their pure fragrance fills the universe."

After Lu You finished reciting, he clicked his tongue in admiration.

"Your Majesty has not published any poems for many years, but this new work is truly a fine poem."

The plum blossom symbolizes purity and self-respect, a concept that originated in the Tang Dynasty and was fully established by the Northern Song Dynasty. Moreover, it became increasingly common for literati to paint plum blossoms in their ink paintings.

Wang Lianqing pointed to the headline on the front page and said, "Your Majesty's poem is a direct response to those corrupt officials mentioned earlier."

The scholars turned to the first page and carefully read the details, which turned out to be a detailed report on the high-ranking officials who had been executed that day.

Moreover, it details how they gradually became corrupt and degenerate.

Lu You couldn't comment on those corrupt officials, so he could only say from another perspective: "The language used in the article is too simplistic."

Hong Mai pointed to the top of the front page: "It was intentional. There are even whiter ones, and they are imperial writings."

The editorial was only then noticed by the readers, who saw that it was authored by Zhao Yuan.

I've heard sages say that governing the world with benevolence will bring prosperity and strength to the nation. But how can benevolent governance be implemented? It relies on officials to do it. In the Song Dynasty, there were too many corrupt officials; the people became poor, the country declined, and the empire was lost…

It's only a few hundred words long, and it's all in plain language.

These students were all talented; after reading just a few lines, they were both amused and exasperated that they could write such articles even as children.

Suddenly, Lu You muttered, "These are written for the common people. No wonder the 'Da Ming Yue Bao' is sold among the people."

……

Qin Hui is still squeezing out toothpaste.

"Xue Bi, Prefect of Xihe Prefecture, Shaanxi..."

“Wan Qixie has already confessed to his crimes, and a bunch of his subordinates are also being investigated by the Shaanxi Provincial Judicial Commissioner. His Majesty has shown them special leniency, allowing them to perform meritorious service in disaster relief.”

"Because he actively returned the stolen goods, Xue Bi was sentenced to exile in Shazhou."

"His subordinates, though spared from exile, some went to jail, some were dismissed from their posts, and some were demoted several ranks."

"Zhao Kai, Councilor of Huainan Province..."

“He has already been implicated by Wang Yan, so he is doomed. Let’s find someone else.”

"Let me think about it again, let me think about it again..."

Qin Hui racked his brains, but it was difficult for him to implicate any more corrupt officials.

Those who needed to be arrested have been arrested almost all!

Xue Bi and Zhao Kai, who were just implicated, are both capable but morally deficient individuals.

Take Xue Bi for example. Historically, he first assisted Li Gang in defending Kaifeng, then offered Yue Fei a plan to eliminate Yang Yao, and officially served as Yue Fei's advisor. He also stepped forward to appease Wang Yan's Eight-Character Army.

Even after leaving Yue Fei, Xue Bi, as a civil official, repeatedly quelled or subdued bandits.

However, when Qin Hui framed Yue Fei, Xue Bi not only did not speak up for him, but also actively sided with Qin Hui.

He even attributed all his credit for suppressing bandits to Wan Qixie in an attempt to curry favor.

Thus, all of Yue Fei's former advisors were dismissed and stripped of their posts by Qin Hui, except for Xue Bi, who was promoted and given important responsibilities by Qin Hui.

Zhao Kai was a pioneer of reform in the early Southern Song Dynasty, reforming the laws on wine, tea and horses, salt, and paper money...

It made a huge contribution to alleviating the financial difficulties of the Southern Song Dynasty, but also caused great suffering to the people of the Southern Song Dynasty.

His most outrageous move was that when the Pacification Commissioner caught a counterfeit money production gang, Zhang Jun planned to execute them all to rectify the currency law.

Zhao Kai, however, suggested stamping the counterfeit money with the official seal of the Pacification Commissioner's Office, thus turning the fake money into real money.

Chapter 3935 Privately Minted Currency

Then, they tattooed the faces of all 50 members of this criminal gang, made them specialize in counterfeiting money, and then stamped it with an official seal to turn it into real money!

This bypassed the limits on currency issuance set by the imperial court, allowing Zhang Jun to print money at will.

Zhao Kai's suggestions were already outrageous, but Zhang Jun actually adopted them all in order to raise military funds.

In the Ming Dynasty of this time and space, Zhao Kai could greatly increase the commercial tax revenue of any place he served as an official.

Moreover, by operating on the fringes of the "Great Ming Code," they could always manage to fool the imperial inspectors.

The amount of money this person embezzled was even comparable to that of Qin Hui!

Upon hearing that Zhao Kai had been arrested, merchants in the areas where he had previously worked celebrated with great joy and set off firecrackers.

"Think again."

"I really can't think of anything."

Qin Hui became frustrated and terrified, awaiting his final judgment.

late autumn.

The trial of Qin Hui concluded with a long list of charges against him. The amount of money he embezzled that could be traced back reached 152 million strings of cash.

This does not include the ill-gotten gains of his family, relatives, and cronies.

More than ten years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, prices have come down.

Only grain and liquor prices have risen due to years of severe drought in the Northwest.

Alcohol prices are rising across the country, while grain prices are higher in the north and stable with a slight increase in the south.

Take the average grain price in Hangzhou as an example. Even though a lot of rice was transported to the north for disaster relief this year, each kilogram of rice only costs 5 wen (which has been converted to the market price of kilograms several hundred years later).

Moreover, rice is cheaper in rural areas surrounding Hangzhou than in the city.