Chapter 2766

Zhu Zian, who was born in Prince De's Palace, also knew a thing or two about the long-standing gray areas in the water transportation system. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal from Hangzhou to Beijing also has a long stretch of river in Shandong. The Ming Dynasty built all the rivers along the canal.

Among the five major grain warehouses built, two of them, Linqing and Dezhou, are located in Shandong.

These two places are about two hundred miles away from Jinan City, where Zhu Zian lives. The princes and princes of Dewang Mansion receive a total of 12,000 shi of rice and grain from the court every year, a considerable part of which is transported by water from the south.

Shipped.

Of course, by the time Zhu Zian remembered it, due to the financial constraints of the imperial court, the stipulated salary had long been unable to be paid in full. Especially after the Qing army invaded Shandong in 1639, they burned, killed, and looted the place, and water transportation was interrupted for a long time.

, two grain warehouses in Linqing and Dezhou were also looted. And all the large and small ships on the canal were requisitioned by the Qing army as tools to cross the Yellow River to attack Jinan City.

When the Qing army retreated, almost all of these ships were sunk, and the food inside and outside Jinan City was also plundered to prevent the Ming army south of the Yellow River from launching a counterattack. For a long time after that war, the Grand Canal was closed.

After normal water transportation could be restored, Prince De's Mansion also had no source of food. It had to use its own money to organize troops and go to Yanzhou Mansion in the south, which was not directly affected by the war, to purchase food at high prices.

However, after water transportation gradually resumed, grain was still scarce and prices remained at wartime levels. This directly led to tens of thousands of hungry people fleeing from war-affected areas to Dengzhou Prefecture controlled by Haihan in order to survive.

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At that time, Zhu Zian had heard from his fathers that a considerable part of the relief grains that the imperial court had mobilized from the south were withheld by the Caofu government under various pretexts during their transportation to the north. This part of the grains was erased from the grain warehouse inventory as losses.

, and then sold at high prices in markets around the country. As for where the proceeds from the sales of these grains go, it is definitely not the national treasury.

Zhu Zian still had doubts about this at the time. Could it be that the imperial court was not aware of such chaos in water transport?

His father told him that the imperial court was not unaware of these small actions, but the food supply in the entire Gyeonggi region depended on water transportation. If these matters were to be thoroughly investigated, no one knew how many officials would be implicated, and it is likely that the entire water transportation system would be paralyzed again. If

Who can bear such a big responsibility for causing the capital to be short of food?

In comparison, the losses caused by those in the Caofu Yamen who embezzled grain and enriched their own pockets were nothing more than trivial. As long as the water transportation system is still functioning, the imperial court will probably continue to turn a blind eye.

Go investigate the various activities here.

At that time, Zhu Zian didn't quite understand the answer given by his father, but now that he thinks about it, it is not difficult to understand its meaning. These people who use the privilege of water transportation to get oil and water are like silverfish in the beams of the house. Although the homeowner knows that sooner or later

The hollow beams and columns will be eaten away by beetles, causing the house to collapse. However, if you want to eradicate the beetles, you must first open the beams and columns, and doing so may make the house collapse faster.

Based on the situation during the Chongzhen period, the pillars supporting the country are already crumbling and cannot withstand any major shocks. No one is sure what kind of chain reaction it will cause if the water transportation is thoroughly investigated. Since it has not collapsed yet, everyone can live with their eyes closed.

One day at a time.

The Ming Dynasty obviously failed to find a reasonable way to deal with it throughout its dynasty, so that when it came time to change dynasties, the silverfish in the water transportation system seemed to get worse.

Zhu Zian sighed secretly, and then looked down. Cao Kun transported this batch of grain all the way to Tianjin, and he encountered trouble when delivering the grain locally. Because the amount of grain actually delivered to the local area was less than the amount mobilized by the imperial court. Nearly half of the officials stationed at the Caoliang Warehouse from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development naturally refused to take responsibility and refused to sign for this batch of severely deficient Caoliang.

Of course, the Caofu government was not unprepared. First, it was argued that the governments in the south of the Yangtze River were ineffective in collecting grain and failed to complete the tasks assigned by the court. Later, it was also claimed that Caofu grain was forcibly collected by Haihan before it was shipped from Jiangnan. The Caofu government negotiated There is no result but a bitter pill to swallow.

What I mean at the moment is that there is only so much Cao grain that can be transported to Tianjin anyway. If you, the Ministry of Revenue, want to take it or want to be held accountable, then please go to the real owner and cause trouble. I, the Cao Mansion, will not be responsible.

When Zhu Zian saw this, he already thought that if the Ministry of Revenue wanted to use such an excuse to deal with the superiors, it would be difficult for the court to deal with it.

The imperial court had surrendered to Haihan last year, and the prefectural capitals in Zhejiang had been annexed by Haihan. It had no further obligation to be loyal to the imperial court. It was an act of benevolence and righteousness to continue to collect grain and transport it to the north.

Whether it is to issue an order to punish the Jiangnan state governments for their inability to collect grain, or to issue a diplomatic document to accuse Haihan for obstructing it, both options will only put the court into an even more embarrassing situation. But if there is no response to this, then the only thing left by the court will be That little bit of authority will definitely be gone, and it will continue to encourage such unhealthy trends.

The most appropriate way is, of course, to find a soft persimmon to punish, so as to scare the monkeys below and give an explanation to the above.

The Caofu Yamen are rich and powerful, and even have independently commanded armed forces. This is not something that the Ministry of Revenue can handle. So in the entire water transportation system, the easiest thing to deal with is naturally those who do not have formal official status, including grain. The long-term civil servants inside.

So after consultation, the Ministry of Revenue and the Cao Government reached an agreement - the Cao grain losses were quite large this time because the unloading personnel did not do a good job in damage control during transportation and should bear the main responsibility. Relevant people should first Arrest them on the spot and sentence them to hard labor at the discretion of the Caofu Yamen. Wait until the next time there is a grain collection task, and then try to find a group of unlucky people from the local area to serve as grain directors.

Fortunately, one of the Cao soldiers on this trip was a fellow villager who had some personal relationship with Cao Kun. He secretly informed him of the news and asked him to escape quickly. Cao Kun was the only one of the more than ten grain chiefs who participated in this unloading mission. A person who got the news and escaped before the government took action.

Cao Kun had no relatives in the north and was worried about being wanted by the Caofu Yamen. Therefore, after escaping from Tianjin, he did not dare to take the official road south. First, he went around the Bohai Bay in a large circle, and then went to Dengcheng under the control of Haihan. He worked as a miner in Fushan Copper Mine for several months. After saving some money, he took a boat from Zhifu Port back to the south before the Spring Festival this year.

Cao Kun was worried that the Caofu government was still pursuing him, and he did not even dare to go back to his hometown in Suzhou, so he came to Hangzhou to make a living. At this time, the Donghai Region had fully taken over Hangzhou Prefecture, and no matter how powerful the Caofu Yamen was, they would not dare to come to Haizhou at will. Han people were arrested in Han territory, so it was relatively safe for him.

Cao Kun knew that it would be useless to report this matter to the Ming government, but he was not willing to bear the blame, so he went to the Haihan government and told all his experiences, hoping that Haihan could clear his grievances.
Chapter completed!