My life skills in Daming Liver

From Su Ze's point of view, there has never been such a thing as a so-called civil servant group or honorable group.

Perhaps all classes have their own interests, but each specific person has his own personal interests.

For example, the nobles of the Ming Dynasty, such as Li Tingzhu, Marquis of Linhuai, can only be regarded as stupid. As a descendant of Li Jinglong, the God of War of the Ming Dynasty, the nominally highest military officer in Nanzhili can't be said to have made no achievements in military command. , I can only say that it would be good not to add trouble to Yang Bo, Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing.

Marquis Linhuai can only be regarded as stupid, then the current Wei Guogong is broken.

The current Duke of Wei, Xu Pengju, asked the Ministry of War in Nanjing for 50,000 taels of silver, saying that he wanted to recruit troops to fight against the Japanese.

Of course, the Nanjing Military Department knew what kind of virtue this master was. Xu Pengju claimed to be Xu Bopi, and if he was really given fifty thousand taels of silver, he would not even give a penny to the soldiers.

After the master was rejected, he went to the Nanjing Ministry of War and asked Yang Bo to immediately send troops to defend their Xu family's ancestral property on Shadao.

Naturally, Yang Bo sternly rejected this master again, and he didn't even look at the current situation of the Zhenjiang war. At that time, his Xu family fled back to Nanjing City without a fight. How could he have the face to ask the court to send troops to retake his ancestral property now? .

These two are stupid and bad, but they can't urinate in the same pot on weekdays, and these days are even more attacking each other, fighting for power and profit.

The nobles of the Ming Dynasty have become so depraved, and the combat effectiveness of the civil servants is actually not very good.

If it is said that the civil servants of Ming Dynasty could really work together to fight against the emperor, then the imperial power of Ming Dynasty would have been restricted to death long ago.

Although the current Taoist emperor is slack in politics, he has controlled the court situation by mixing the interests of the ministers and taking advantage of the mutual distrust among the ministers.

But even with the so-called strict party and clean party, everyone in the two parties has their own interests.

The strict party that occupies the court today has various small factions within it, and the demands of these factions may be diametrically opposed.

There is no party within the party, imperial thinking, no faction within the faction, all kinds of strange things.

As Yan Song grew older, more members of the Yan Party surrounded Yan Shifan, and a small old sect formed within the Yan Party.

Yan Shifan is now the minister of the Ministry of Industry. He was only a student of the Imperial College. He was able to become the chief official of the Six Departments without taking the imperial examination.

Yan Shifan was not able to enter the cabinet because he did not have the status of an Hanlin official, but his minister of the Ministry of Industry was also very powerful.

The Ministry of Industry is the one with the broadest authority among the six ministries. In addition to helping the emperor build palaces and temples, the Ministry of Industry also manages the construction of warships, the deployment of water transport ships, and the management of river water conservancy projects across the country, as well as government-run iron mines and factories in various places. square.

In addition to these management functions, the Ministry of Industry also has the right to collect taxes. This is the Ministry of Industry's "Jie Shen Treasury".

The main reason why the Yan family father and son were able to take charge of the imperial court for a long time was not that Yan Song and Yan Shifan wrote Qingci well, but that both father and son were good at financing the emperor.

Yan Shifan was able to take charge of the Ministry of Industry not because he was good at civil engineering, but because he was good at collecting money.

In the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing, the emperor ordered the Ministry of Industry to be given four parts of the "official punishment for silver" and the "salt income from the opening of China and France". In fact, the emperor's large expenditures were taken from the Jieshen treasury, and Yan Shifan didn't have all kinds of complaints like the household department, but actively helped the emperor make money.

Yan Shifan suggested to the emperor to distribute more salt in the south of the Yangtze River and raise money and food to fight against the Japanese in the southeast.

The emperor ordered the salt farms in the north and south of Zhili to sell salt, and the money was raised by Nanjing itself to supplement the shortage of anti-Japanese and border silver.

To put it bluntly, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs of the capital could no longer afford money, so they asked Nanjing to sell Yanyin to raise some funds for fighting the Japanese.

In today's words, the superior is responsible for providing policy support, and the funding problem is solved by the subordinate units themselves.

Yan Shifan immediately asked his cronies to lead him to Nanzhili with policies and a large amount of salt.

In June, Zhang Juzheng, who had taken sick leave for two years, returned to the capital, and he returned to serve in the Imperial Academy.

On the day when Zhang Juzheng returned to the capital, there was little good news for the court in June.

The soldiers and horses of the Nanjing camp defended Zhenjiang, but because the ships of the Yangtze River Navy were almost burnt out, the soldiers and horses of Zhenjiang could only look at Yangzhou on the opposite side and sigh, and could not cross the river to fight in the north of the river.

The soldiers and horses in Yangzhou can only defend Yangzhou. After attacking Yangzhou for a long time, Xu Hai began to disperse his forces to invade other areas in northern Jiangsu. Taizhou, Huai'an, Yancheng, and even some Japanese pirates have already arrived. Xuzhou.

Hu Zongxian also had a difficult time in Zhejiang. The Japanese pirates in Pinghu and Cixi were repelled, but the Japanese pirates began to land from the coast of eastern Zhejiang again, and Ningbo and Hangzhou were also attacked.

Hu Zongxian accepted Xu Wei's suggestion and began to build ships along the coast, changing from passively welcoming Japanese pirates who landed to actively attacking Japanese pirates at sea.

However, the technology of coastal shipyards in the Ming Dynasty has been lost too much, and the ability to build large ships has not been restored so far. Hu Zongxian can only requisition merchant ships and fishing boats to fight.

In addition to Zhejiang, Shandong is also the hardest-hit area of ​​the Japanese invasion.

Wang Shizhen, the leader of the literary world of the Ming Dynasty, served as the deputy envoy of the Shandong Provincial Inspection and was in charge of military preparations in Qingzhou to fight against the Japanese.

Wang Shizhen's father, Wang Yan, was the censor of the right capital and the governor of Datong.

There were wars everywhere throughout the Ming Dynasty, and disaster relief in Guanzhong was still going on, but the unlucky things were often connected together.

In June of the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing, a fire suddenly broke out in Sangong, and Fengtian Gate (today's Taihe Gate), Zuoshun Gate (today's Left Wing Gate), Youshun Gate (today's Right Wing Gate), and the left and right corridors outside Meridian Gate were burned down.

In other words, the fire burned along the east and west corridors of the three main halls to the outside of the Meridian Gate. Almost the entire three halls were burned down.

It is not uncommon for the Forbidden City to catch fire. During the reign of Emperor Yongle Zhu Di, the three halls were burned down once, and the three halls were not rebuilt until the Yingzong period.

After the palace calamity happened this time, the superstitious Emperor Jiajing thought it was a warning from heaven, and he ordered the household department to step up the collection of ambergris, and he would continue to pray to God in Yuxi Palace.

However, in such a tight financial situation, the emperor still ignored the dissuasion of his officials and demanded that the reconstruction of the three halls be started immediately.

In order to raise funds to rebuild the ruined palace, Emperor Jiajing ordered the household, military and engineering departments to raise 300,000 taels of silver.

Yan Shifan reported to the emperor, saying that all the provinces had been in arrears with the Ministry of Industry over the years, and asked the emperor to send a censor to demand the money in arrears over the years.

The emperor immediately agreed with Yan Shifan's suggestion, and ordered the use of illegal fines and vacant salaries stored in various places. In the end, he still felt that it was not enough, and ordered the officials of the Ministry of Industry in the north and south Zhili to search in various warehouses, and bring all the good ones.

Just when the country's finances were so tight, bad news came from Nanzhili. The 20,000 deniers of grain that were going to be shipped to the capital were stored in the Changping warehouse and were burned by Japanese pirates.

In addition to the 20,000 deniers of grain, Japanese pirates harassed the canal water transport along the way, and nearly 10,000 deniers of grain were robbed or lost.

After receiving this news, the price of food in the capital rose rapidly, by 50% within three days.

When the court was shrouded in bad news, the good news on the two memorials was very eye-catching.

The first one is Fang Wanghai, who was appointed as the envoy of Chaoguan last year, and wrote to the imperial court that this year, a tax of 30,000 taels of silver has been levied on banknotes.

Another piece of good news is that Eunuch Tao, who minted coins in Fujian, approved a total of 50,000 taels of fire consumption silver earned by minting coins in Fujian last year, and this money is ready to be sent to the capital at any time.

These two pieces of good news put Emperor Jiajing in a good mood at last, and the sound of copper exhaustion in Yuxi Palace kept ringing. The two sums of money are not much, but they add up to a lot, especially the bill tariff is a sum of money. stable taxation.

In June, the emperor decreed that Fang Wanghai's original position as Youqian Capital Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate was promoted to another level, and he was appointed as the Minister of the Nanjing Household Department to be fully responsible for the affairs of the banknotes in Zhejiang and Nanzhili.

Mr. Tao joined the Supervisor of Ceremonies and gave him the position of Eunuch Bingbi in advance. He will be able to return to the Supervisor of Ceremonies when his term of office is over.

In addition, Fang Wanghai's wife, Mrs. Li, also received a royal order, and even Fang Wanghai's son was given a shadow official.

In the camp near Gushan Village in Jingjiang, the camp of the Anti-Japanese Anti-Smuggling Corps has changed its appearance.

The original simple house has been turned into a wooden house. Su Ze set up a beacon tower and watchtower on the lonely mountain, and also built a small lighthouse by the sea.

Su Ze's command post has also changed from a simple tent to a wooden house, and wooden piles have been erected around the camp.

Su Ze is playing chess with Xu Shixing.

These days, Xu Shixing's chess skills can be said to have regressed greatly.

Su Ze's chess moves are weird, he never plays cards according to common sense, nor does he make moves according to ancient chess records, which makes Xu Shixing's chess moves more and more crooked.

It's fine if the chess path is crooked, the worst thing is that he can't beat Su Ze!

Su Ze can always come up with some amazing tricks, and behind the unreasonable tricks is the calculation that there is no trick to win.

"Brother Rulin, let Mr. Zhuowu play chess with you next time."

Xu Shixing was tortured badly, he grabbed the chess piece and was ready to admit defeat.

Su Ze was thinking about the battle on the Yangtze River, how could he make a throw and admit defeat, and quickly said: "This game is not over yet! How can you give up lightly!"

Xu Shixing looked at the big dragon that he was besieged, this is called chess, is it over yet?

Xu Shixing had completely given up, and just followed his instinct to finish. He said while making a move:

"Brother Ru Lin, are you not worried about Chao Guan's account?"

Su Ze said with a smile: "As long as people make accounts, there will always be traces. It's not that the Longmen account cannot be flattened, but if there are too many fake accounts, it will always show its feet. It's not that Mr. Zhuo Wu and Brother Xu want to Find out all the silverfish, just find out the most greedy and stupid ones."

Xu Shixing thought about it for a while, and it seemed that this was indeed the case. His father, the magistrate, also managed the subordinates in this way on weekdays. By beating a few subordinates who did too much, he could make the administration clearer.

Su Ze asked again: "How is the food price in Suzhou Prefecture now?"

Xu Shixing sighed and said, "It's already increased by 60%. I heard that Japanese pirates are making trouble in Jiangbei. This year's summer grain harvest must be exhausted. Suzhou will be short of grain in the second half of the year."

"Report!"

"Come in!"

A messenger sent a letter to Su Ze. Su Ze opened it and said with a smile:

"Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao is here, and Mr. Zhuo Wu has written."

Su Ze unfolded the letter, the first half of which was Li Zhi's complaints. As soon as he and Xu Guo arrived at Huguan, they checked the accounts day and night, and finally found out more than a dozen places where the accounts were not in keeping with each other. .

Fang Wanghai also acted decisively, cut through the mess quickly, and used the military law of the anti-Japanese period to deal with these rats, which greatly shocked the subordinate officials in the entire Chaoguan hall.

Su Ze handed the letter to Xu Shixing and said, "As expected, Helongmen caught these rotten fish and rotten shrimps, and the Chaoguan Hall can be considered to be quiet for a while."

Xu Shixing also often wonders how Su Ze's brain is so long. He is more sophisticated than his prefect father. They are all as powerful as him, I am afraid that the administration of officials has long since become clear.

After reading the letter, Xu Shixing looked up and saw Su Ze making plans.

In Su Ze's hand was a complicated report, densely packed with numbers in petty lowercase letters, it was the report sent along with Li Zhi's letter.

Although Su Ze's accounting skill is only Lv4, but with the blessing of intelligence and the assistance of mathematics skills, he quickly noticed some abnormalities from the report.

"Ru Lin, what is this?"

Su Ze said: "This is a record of customs duties paid by passing ships, including the item and quantity of the goods paid."

"What's the problem? Are there still subordinates who are greedy for ink?"

Su Ze shook his head and said: "The report can be closed. Mr. Zhuo Wu and Brother Xu have already seen the problems. I just think this report is a bit strange."

"strangeness?"

"Yes, Brother Rumo, look, since this month, twenty merchant ships have passed through the Huguan Pass to the south, and they are all transporting grain."

Banknote tariff is to estimate the type and quantity of the goods, and then collect the amount according to the proportion after converting the amount. Therefore, every collection record naturally has the name of the goods.

"Nowadays, the price of rice in the south of the Yangtze River is high. Isn't it normal to transport grain from the north?"

"No, it's not normal. If it's a few hundred deniers or a few thousand deniers, it's normal, but these days, 10,000 deniers of grain have been shipped to Jiangnan and Zhejiang, which is not a small amount."

"Ten thousand den?" Xu Shixing was also shocked by this figure. Xu Shixing helped his father as an aide. He knew that the annual grain tax of a Jiangnan prefecture was only 200,000 den. What kind of businessman could sell 10,000 den of grain at once? ?

Su Ze said again: "It's all new food."

At this moment, Xu Shixing's expression changed.