Ming Dynasty: The Rampant Crown Prince

October of the twelfth year of Chongzhen.

South Zhili Xuzhou.

In an inn in the city, Li Ruolian chartered the entire restaurant and came to greet His Royal Highness the Prince.

"Chen Jinyi Wei commanded Li Ruolian to see His

Royal Highness the Prince!" "Chenbei Zhenfu Si Zhenfu envoy Gao Wencai to see His Royal Highness the Prince!" On

the third floor, as soon as a few people walked upstairs, they immediately saluted Zhu Cihong.

The entire inn was crowded with hundreds of people, guarded at all levels, and even the shopkeeper and shopkeeper were driven to the back kitchen and were not allowed to enter or leave.

"Sit, don't be polite outside, so as not to attract unnecessary attention.

Zhu Cihong took the lead in sitting down, and then asked Li Ruolian about the situation of Li Ruolian lurking in Jiangnan for several months: "Let's talk about it, what is the situation in this area

of Jiangnan?" "Your Royal Highness, the will of the capital has been sent to all parts of Jiangnan, and there has been no change.

For example, the local government still sends people to collect taxes, and then makes a show of handing over the intercepted tax money to the tax department, and the conscription is still used again, the fire consumption silver is still collected, and the private salt has been flowing out, and a small part of the salt produced in the south of the Yangtze River has been transported to the Agricultural Affairs Department of Beizhili to make a show, and most of them have become private salt, salt class, salt supervisor, and Lianghuai director, salt makes these people still take bribes and let the private salt flow out, and only the express post station yamen is operating normally。

Li Ruolian directly took out a booklet and began to report the work in detail, this is a summary of problems, and if you record it in detail, you can't put it in a box.

As he spoke, he added: "According to His Royal Highness's orders, the tax army of the Taxation Department is stationed outside a village and town outside Nanjing on the grounds of garrison, and the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau called by His Highness also colludes with officials and businessmen every year to embezzle about seven million taels of silver, which is the sum of the corruption of the Nanjing Weaving Bureau, the Suzhou Weaving Bureau, the Yangzhou Weaving Bureau, and the Hangzhou Weaving Bureau.

"The four bureaus produce one million pieces of silk every year, of which 200,000 pieces of silk are shipped back to the capital, and the remaining 800,000 pieces of silk are shipped overseas and sold to those Western merchants together with the Zhejiang City Bosi, but these seven million are not divided by the four bureaus, the local government, up to the governor, the political envoy, according to the inspector, down to the prefect, the governor, and the officials and businessmen who weave for the weaving bureau share together, they greatly lower the price and annex the good land to mulberry field, and then hang it in the name of the local gentry, so they do not have to pay taxes. "

There is also a tax on people, and the local government has hidden the population and secretly embezzled the tax on people, please look at it."

After Li Ruolian finished speaking, he handed the booklet to His Royal Highness the Prince, and then took out a booklet from his bosom, and said: " Among them, the smuggling of salt, silk, land annexation, monopolizing a large number of silk, tea, and iron business of Tie Xun nobles, Zhu Guobi, who was seized in the early years of Chongzhen, Xincheng Bo Zhao Zhilong, Longping Marquis Zhang Xianyang, Linhuai Marquis Li Zushu, Huaining Marquis Sun Weicheng, Lingbi Marquis Tang Guozuo, Anyuan Marquis Liu Zuochang, Yongchang Marquis Xu Hongjue, Dingyuan Marquis Deng Wenyu, Xiangcheng Bo Chang Yingjun, Daxing Bo Zou Cunyi, Ning Jin Bo Liu Yunji......

"Your Highness, please take a look. He

himself was shocked, there are so many nobles in the good guys, this water in the south of the Yangtze River is bottomless, no wonder many Beijing officials will immediately fall into it and can't extricate themselves, so many local officials, nobles, gentry and businessmen, there are really few people who can fight so many people.

In addition, it is also a place of fireworks, which will really make people go back and forth all year round.

No wonder Ni Yuanlu said that the salt tax in Jiangnan has never been rectified in all dynasties.

Zhu Cihong held his forehead, after listening to Li Ruolian's words, after reading these two booklets, he suddenly felt a little irritable, to be honest, he originally came here to be very murderous, good guy, just entered Nanzhili, sat in Xuzhou City, and saw these, that is to say, most of the local officials, gentry, nobles, and businessmen here are corrupt and smuggled.

This is called how to cut him, originally thought that he would kill more than 100 officials, dozens of salt smuggling merchants, dozens of gentry, dozens of merchants, more than a dozen nobles or something, at most a few hundred people, but now it is good, if you really want to move the real character, I am afraid that you will have to cut off the heads of thousands of ministers, and it may be more than that.

Wouldn't there be a serious fault line in Jiangnan?

Or a very serious fault, he didn't come here to kill people, but for money, so he would only kill a group of leaders who were the most corrupt and smugglers to establish their authority and play a deterrent role.

"Qian Qianyi, what do you think?" Zhu Cihong rubbed his eyebrows, then looked at Qian Qianyi who was sitting on the side, and said with a smile: "This is your territory, you were also one of these people before, for these people, this is a matter, what do you say should be done?"

This is not to ridicule the other party, but to really ask Qian Qianyi's opinions and suggestions, after all, this is his hometown, and he is also a great writer in Jiangnan, and his status in the circle of literati and gentry is still very high, and Zhu Cihong means that he wants to use Qian Qianyi to win over a group of available people to support the central policy and oppose the practices of those corrupt officials and gentry and businessmen.

Since ancient times, there are two sides to everything, since most of the people in Jiangnan are oppositionists, then there must be a group of supporters to fight against the opposition, instead of regardless of the three-seven-twenty-one, one size fits all, after all, he is the monarch, and he must consider the future, including the development of Jiangnan.

Therefore, after killing a group of people, it is necessary to support another group of people to come out, and a group of people who support the new policy of the imperial court to come out.

"Your Highness, the minister is guilty.

Qian Qianyi heard Li Ruolian's words, his heart was pounding, his heart was pounding, his heart was pounding, on the one hand, he was shocked by the ability of Jinyiwei, so many officials in the entire Jiangnan, Shang was actually investigated by Jinyiwei clearly, and even the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau embezzled more than 7 million taels of money every year, he could find out.

The second is the fact that he was frightened, as well as the purpose of Jinyiwei's coming here, the purpose of His Highness bringing him here, he thought that His Highness wanted to visit Jiangnan and let himself lead the way, so what does this situation mean, what does His Highness want to do?

Horror is not so simple as rectification, otherwise it would be necessary to let Jinyiwei check it so clearly.

"You are no longer the same person you used to be, you are not guilty, you can say what you think.

Zhu Cihong said.

"From the perspective of Weichen, although these people have people who violate laws and disciplines, there are also people who are really worried about the country and the people, but in this rolling Yangtze River, they can't go against the current, they can only go with the flow.

Qian Qianyi didn't know what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince meant now, so he could only express his opinion, so he said: " The minister's view is that it is better to win over a group and fight a group, because there are some things that His Royal Highness cannot do personally, and a group of people need to stand up and speak out for the new policy of the imperial court, to crack down on those groups who oppose the new policy, and then find His Royal Highness to complain and report, petition, and finally His Royal Highness understands the situation, and there are indeed local magistrates who disobey the new policy of the imperial court, smuggle salt and iron, and violate the yang and yin, so with the support of the masses, they have to take action these days. "