Chapter 865 954 Don’t Block Other People’s Money Path

"Take this letter to see Zhang Jiayin. Danyang is under his jurisdiction. Ask him to secretly arrest Shao Fang. You must watch his execution with your own eyes. Wingdings: ♦︎♦︎⬧︎♦︎◆︎⌧︎♦︎♦︎□︎❍︎"

Zhang Jiayin's courtesy name is Xiaofu. His initial name is Shan, and later he changed his name to Julaishanren. He was from Chongqing Prefecture, Sichuan. In the 29th year of Jiajing, he passed the imperial examination and was appointed as the county magistrate. In the 5th year of Longqing, he served as the governor of Yingtian as the right assistant censor.

Since Shao Fang hid back, Zhang Juzheng should naturally take action.

Speaking of the previous few times, Zhang Juzheng was also helpless when he failed to catch people.

The people around Shao Daxia, from the housekeeper to the servants, were mostly disabled and ugly people. They were all unable to survive and were taken in by Shao Fang to work at home, so these servants were loyal to him.

In fact, to catch someone, the first thing is to grasp his whereabouts, and using spies to turn his servants around him is undoubtedly the best way.

But he happened to meet such a weirdo, and the people around him could not persuade him at all.

As a businessman in Jiangnan, Shao Fang was generous, decisive, generous, and chivalrous, but such a person just didn't do his business properly, but wanted to get involved in politics.

After everyone left, Zhang Juzheng still sat there thinking.

Executing a prisoner is not a trivial matter. Even if he is the chief minister of the cabinet, he can't kill people casually.

Unless he sends someone to assassinate without the power of the government.

As for the people who the court needs to contact secretly, Zhang Juzheng has already made up his mind.

He doesn't plan to make any rounds, but to confront the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple and the Censorate directly, so that they can greenlight this case after executing Shao Fang in Jiangnan.

As for the reason, Zhang Juzheng naturally had it long ago.

After Gao Gong lost power last year, Shao Fang decisively chose to turn to someone else, and this person was none other than Li Wei, the grandfather of the current Emperor Wanli and the father of Empress Dowager Li.

Shao Fang used the same method as before and spent nearly two months bribing Li Wei's housekeeper. One day, the housekeeper arranged for him to meet Li Wei.

Li Wei was lustful, but Shao Daxia was generous, so he had a good impression of him. Knowing that he was a Jiangnan merchant, he introduced a business to Shao Fang.

How could a royal relative do a losing business?

Shao Fang was originally trying to get closer to Li Wei, so he didn't intend to make money from it at all.

He did the business himself and gave all the benefits to Li Wei, which made Li Wei regard Shao Fang as a close friend for a while.

With the relationship with Empress Dowager Li's father, Zhang Juzheng was a little timid when dealing with Shao Fang.

After all, Zhang Juzheng didn't want to offend Empress Dowager Li, and Feng Bao also reminded him of this.

However, seeing Shao Fang's ability to maneuver, Zhang Juzheng was determined to get rid of him.

Fortunately, the opportunity finally came. Li Wei introduced the business to Shao Fang, and he got all the benefits. However, Shao Fang could not lose too much, so he simply cut corners in the following business.

In the end, the incident finally happened. There was a problem with the goods he handled.

Because the case involved royal relatives, the court would naturally not deal with it publicly. It was Empress Dowager Li who directly asked the Prime Minister Zhang Juzheng to deal with it.

Under Zhang Juzheng's intervention, Li Wei was sentenced to a light sentence. Although the punishment was not severe, it also achieved the purpose of "knocking the mountain and shocking the tiger" for other royal relatives, so that they dared not act recklessly.

But Zhang Juzheng would naturally not be polite to Shao Fang, the "culprit".

Because it involved royal relatives, Zhang Juzheng was sure to persuade Chen Yisong, Ge Shouli and others to let go, and secretly arrested Shao Fang and executed him directly without questioning him in court.

Because when dealing with Li Wei, everything had been explained clearly, and Shao Fang must be one of the criminals involved.

And Chen Yisong and others also knew that in order to preserve the face of the royal family, Shao Fang would not be brought to court after being caught.

Of course, Li Wei's case also involved Chen Hong, the eunuch in the palace. Shao Fang chose to please Li Wei after discussing with Chen Hong, saving the country and pleasing Empress Dowager Li in a roundabout way.

But now that things have gone wrong, Feng Bao will not let go of this opportunity easily.

Chen Hong did not get any good, and was directly sent to Nanjing to wait for death. He was completely out of power and powerless to turn the tide.

And because these things needed to be kept secret, Empress Dowager Li directly asked the Prime Minister Zhang Juzheng to deal with them, and even Wei Guangde was not very clear.

Just know that Li Wei did something bad and was punished.

That was the Empress Dowager's biological father, and after Chen Hong was expelled, Wei Guangde knew some of the reasons.

But for Shao Fang, Wei Guangde naturally did not like him.

Wei Guangde didn't know that Zhang Juzheng had sentenced Shao Fang to death. He was listening to Lu Bu passing on the gossip in various government offices today.

"Wait, you said that someone in the Censorate denounced the loss of ships and grain when transporting grain by sea?"

Lu Bu was still talking about the news he heard, and was suddenly interrupted by Wei Guangde.

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu hurriedly stopped talking and answered.

"Who is saying that?"

Wei Guangde asked.

"There are many people saying this. It seems that the censor Bao Xiyan is the most active. There are similar words from the six departments. Jia Sanjin, the secretary of the household department, is the main supporter."

Lu Bu said.

"Please help me pay attention to this matter in the next few days and see who is jumping for joy."

Wei Guangde ordered.

He didn't pay attention to Zhang Juzheng's words two days ago, but the news from Lu Bu today reminded him that the grain transport by sea was not giving up and wanted to move the grain transport by sea.

At this time, Wei Guangde suddenly slapped his head and kept saying, "I was careless, I was careless."

Yes, at this time, Wei Guangde suddenly discovered the mistakes he made in the previous official transfer.

After the Ministry of Revenue decided to transport 120,000 shi of grain by sea every year, he thought that the matter was stable, so he did not stop Wang Zongmu and Liang Menglong from being promoted.

Now Wang Zongmu has been transferred to Nanjing, and Liang Menglong has entered the Ministry of Revenue as a minister. Both of them are officials who strongly promote sea transportation.

But now, they have all been transferred away from their places. In the future, whether to maintain the sea transportation of grain by sea will depend on the opinions of others.

"Do the people in the grain transport department really intend to use this incident to start a discussion on the sea transportation of grain by sea?"

Wei Guangde was a little unsure, but he was no longer the same as before. He wanted to nip all risks in the bud.

The governor of the grain transport? Haha

Wei Guangde remembered that Liang Menglong was originally going to be transferred to the Nanjing Criminal Department, and it was he who changed his position to the Ministry of Revenue.

At that time, Wei Guangde did it on impulse, and now it seems that the casual move at the time seems to be of great use now.

Maybe I have noticed it subconsciously, but I just didn't think about it carefully.

Wei Guangde thought so in his heart. Wang Zongmu was promoted to Nanjing as a minister, so it would be difficult to demote him and continue to serve as the governor of the grain transport, but Liang Menglong could do it.

It is also a common practice in the court to serve as the governor of the grain transport with the title of the minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

Afterwards, Wei Guangde sent a note to his fellow townsmen Shu Ao, Da Dongguang and Zhou Shouyu in the Six Departments and the Censorate, one of which was to ask them to pay attention to the officials in the yamen who opposed the grain transport by sea, write down their names, and also find out what their next plan is, whether they are ready to make a joint memorial to stop the sea transport.

Since Wei Guangde came to power, he has not done much. Most of the time, he has been placing his people under him. The only thing that really involves national policy is to open Yuegang and re-propose sea transportation.

Yuegang was opened because Xu Jie and others were in power at that time. He did not have much say and did not participate much, which led to the current limited trade volume in Yuegang.

At the beginning, Emperor Longqing wanted to make a fortune through Yuegang, but the silver that the inner court could receive every year was only tens of thousands of taels, so he lost interest.

However, Wei Guangde knew that it was not that sea trade did not make money, but that the tariffs were not paid in full and were restricted.

There are only so many ships going out to sea every year, how can it increase income?

Now, those families who got the ship permit have made a lot of money from Yuegang's sea trade. The families who did not get the ship permit before or got a ship permit in partnership with others have actually been dissatisfied for a long time.

Although Wei Guangde also controlled a fleet and was conducting trade with the East with his tacit consent, which could be said to be lucrative, Wei Guangde was not a short-sighted person and would not kill the opportunity to open the sea for his own selfish desires.

Wei Guangde still knew the importance of making money for his family and the long-term stability of the country.

Opening the sea would allow the people of the Ming Dynasty to open their eyes to the world as soon as possible, which was more important than anything else.

Opening the sea not only made huge amounts of money and solved the shortage of silver in the country, but the most important thing was to increase the court's income so that it would not be unable to afford it during the war because of the empty treasury.

Why did the Ming Dynasty fail to suppress the Jianzhou Jurchens in the northeast in the late Ming Dynasty? In fact, the empty treasury was the main reason.

In the Battle of Sarhu, the Ming court had actually exposed the shortage of food and money, so it was forced to send troops in an unsuitable season.

In the Battle of Songshan in the late Chongzhen period, Emperor Chongzhen also issued orders to urge the war because of the difficulties in the treasury, which led to Hong Chengchou making fatal mistakes in command, and Hong Dai seized the opportunity to annihilate the last mobile force of the Ming court in one fell swoop.

After the Battle of Songshan, the Ming court could no longer organize a large army to fight against the bandits or the Later Jin. The Ming frontier army that had defended the northern border for 200 years was completely wiped out in this battle.

In fact, after the Battle of Sarhu, if the Ming court had not been financially stretched, and had not mobilized the wolf soldiers and white-pole soldiers in the southwest, the Zhejiang soldiers in the south, the Datong archers and other main forces of the frontier army to encircle and suppress, the probability of Jianzhou Jurchens becoming powerful would have been very small.

However, just because of the lack of money, a siege war was turned into a tactic that military strategists most feared.

The domestic elite soldiers and generals were constantly dispatched to attack in a dispersed manner, and then the Later Jin seized the opportunity to defeat them one by one, and a good hand was completely ruined.

The Ming Dynasty either had no good soldiers or no money, and could not be dispatched.

In the following days, the news that seven ships of grain transported by sea and nearly 5,000 stones of grain were lost in the court continued to spread, and many officials actively or passively participated in the discussion.

There were both supporters and opponents, and there was no distinction between the two for the time being.

Cabinet, after the cabinet discussed the recent government affairs, Wei Guangde deliberately mentioned this matter.

"I don't understand, this is just the second time the court has transported grain by sea, and the loss of 5,000 stones has been infinitely magnified. Compared with river transportation, this loss is insignificant.

But recently, the whole court has been discussing that sea transportation is risky, the wind is high and the waves are fierce, and once the ship capsizes, there is no rescue.

Look at the past few years, which year did the grain army not suffer heavy losses on the canal."

Wei Guangde deliberately said this to Zhang Juzheng, he knew Zhang Juzheng's mentality at the time.

At that time, the court was determined to try sea transportation, and it was Gao Gong who pushed it. He was worried about the safety of grain, and he was helpless about the safety of the river, so he decided to try sea transportation, hoping to find a way to solve the safety of grain and grass in Beijing and border towns.

After Zhang Juzheng came to power, the thing he paid the most attention to was to deny Gao Gong's decision.

Although Gao Gong had already resigned when the final attempt was successful, the decision was made by Gao Gong after all, so Zhang Juzheng did not want to continue the grain transport strategy.

"Don't be too excited about Shandai. The losses in this grain shipping are indeed not small. Let them discuss the following discussion. Don't you often say that you are not afraid of others saying it, but you are afraid of others not speaking?

If you argue, the result will be determined whether it is good or not. "

Zhang Juzheng said warmly and comforted that he also wanted to test Wei Guangde's determination. If he was not very determined, he would still try to modify it.

"But some people don't want to argue with peace of mind. Behind the scenes, I heard that there are many foreign ministers meddling in the affairs of the DPRK."

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng and sneered: "The families of Shandong Fu Xizhi, Caosi Yu Yiguan and others have heard that they have been very active in the capital recently, claiming that their masters are worried and plan to file a memorial.

Just submit the memorial directly. What's the point of wandering around the capital to persuade other officials?

I heard that these people are very generous and use money to open the way everywhere. I have asked people to collect evidence, and I am still considering whether to hand it over to Mr. Ge and let the Metropolitan Procuratorate take care of it. "

Wei Guangde took the initiative to provoke this matter today, of course he came prepared.

Officials from Caosi, Shandong and other places intervened in the matter. They persuaded Yushi and Kedao, who had a strong relationship with the water transport, to speak out for him. They also lobbied other officials with a say in Beijing, which made Wei Guangde feel uneasy.

If they really had the right to speak, there would be no need to continue this debate.

Fortunately, most officials understand the true meaning of this debate and are not in a hurry to express their opinions. Instead, they sit at home and wait for people to come to ask for advice.

Well, take the opportunity to make a little fortune.

After all, living in the capital is not easy.

Wei Guangde didn't want to block the way of people and money, so he simply sent someone to observe their movements quietly and keep records.

Many of these people are related to Zhang Juzheng and are either his disciples or close friends.

Wei Guangde believed that what he said to Zhang Juzheng today would be passed on to them to stop.

Otherwise, Wei Guangde doesn't mind handing the matter over to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. With the selfless Ge Shouli here, these people won't be able to get away with it.

Sure enough, after hearing what Wei Guangde said, Zhang Juzheng knew that Wei Guangde had not taken any action before and was actually collecting evidence.

Thinking about it, the sources of contact there are complicated, and it is difficult to get through the minds of a few high-level people and let them suppress the people of their own faction. Maybe they have to offer benefits to get them to speak up.

Rather than going through all the trouble and thankless work, it is better to go straight to business and use the Metropolitan Procuratorate to suppress them and silence their mouths.

At that time, as long as you open your mouth, everyone else will be silent, because as long as you help speak, it means taking away the benefits from others.

What's more, Wei Guangde has delayed the matter for these days. The people who should be met have been met, and the gifts that should be given have been given out. Those people will soon figure it out when they come down.

Mr. Wei Ge did not stop them from getting rich.

In the end, after the money has been spent, people still remember Wei Guangde's good deeds behind his back. Who can I blame?