"Thirty cents a day! Come if you can, and don't be a drag on those who can't!"

"We're looking for trackers! We're looking for trackers..."

"The boat in front should get in quickly, the boat behind it will be blocked!"

"Dang! Dang! Dang..."

In the early morning of November 15th, the first year of Taichang, when all forces were surging, hundreds of large and small ships on the Yangtze River waterway were waiting to enter the city at the bustling docks.

Before dawn, when the Yangtze River was still full of water vapor, the docks were already filled with people from the Ming Dynasty who came to act as trackers.

In the early morning bells of the city clock tower, on the pier where thousands of people were working, as the sun slowly rose, the water mist from the Yangtze River slowly evaporated, gradually revealing the city several miles away behind the pier.

A vast and ancient city lies on the earth, stretching for hundreds of miles, slowly emerging from the mist.

The city wall is tall and majestic, like a mountain ridge stretching in front, full of solid strength, like a stone dragon lying on the edge of the Yangtze River. It is so majestic and majestic that people can't breathe under the pressure of the city wall.

Full of marks of time.

It was in such a huge city that 1.2 million Ming people lived.

This is the largest capital city in ancient history. Its scale is so large that no other city in history can match it.

Nanjing City in the Ming Dynasty was the southern capital of the Ming Dynasty. It was divided into four layers of walls from the inside to the outside: the palace city, the imperial city, the capital city and the outer city.

The outer city has a circumference of more than one hundred miles and an enclosed area of ​​about 372,000 acres. The city is three feet three feet high, two feet four feet wide, and has eighteen gates.

Such a city, if placed in Europe of this era, would be enough to become a country on its own.

In front of such a magnificent city, everyone seems insignificant, and it is in this insignificant contrast that some people's rights are greater than the city, and even radiate to the entire Jiangnan...

Scholars, nobles, merchants, gentry, country gentry, rich peasants, traders and pawns...

In addition to imperial power, this huge city has all the elements of the Ming Dynasty. Due to the system of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty, if you control this place, you will control the entire south.

But at the same time, once any unrest occurs in the south, this is also the place that needs to pay for any unrest.

The Huaibei Great Famine, which may have been far away from the officials of Shuntian Prefecture before Shen Lian revealed the truth, was actually fermenting in Jiangnan.

On August 23rd of the first year of Taichang, the great famine in Huaibei had already begun. The local residents ate all the grass roots and tree barks, and even several cottages, married women and children, and ordered them to eat bean paste and water chestnuts.

Subsequently, a large number of hungry people crossed the Yangtze River to eat rice and grain, causing grain prices in the south of the Yangtze River to skyrocket.

On the first day of September, Zhenjiang fights for rice with 100 coins...

On September 14th, in Suzhou and Songjiang, the price of rice increased to one hundred and forty.

Merchant ships from South Zhili were unable to get rice from Sichuan and Huguang, so all shops were closed, causing the price of rice in Nanjing to soar to 200 yuan.

Logically speaking, such a price should not appear in Jiangnan, but it just happened to appear.

Until then, Huai'an Prefecture and Xuzhou were suddenly sealed off, and food prices were controlled overnight.

The money that should be earned has already been earned, and the problem is left to Huai'an and Xuzhou to solve on their own. Once this problem is solved, it will be a long-standing case comparable to the four major Hongwu cases!

Now, the inflated balloon has exploded. The first place to explode is close to the source, and the explosion begins to spread.

If you want to avoid being affected, you have to cut off your arms and survive.

For some people, losing an arm is too difficult for them, and abandoning the chess pieces is already the biggest concession they have to make...

"So I said back then that we shouldn't make the matter so big. How will it end now?!"

"You were so happy when you were collecting cash, why didn't you think about how bad the impact of this incident was?!"

In the study of a mansion in Nanjing City, an old man with gray hair wearing a Taoist robe scolded three people sitting in the study, but the three people remained silent and could only endure it.

Things are getting serious... everyone knows the answer.

The emperor changed the imperial inspection to the capital and sent the censor of the Northern Zhili Metropolitan Procuratorate to inspect the south of the Yangtze River. All this showed that the emperor had extreme distrust of the officials left behind in Nanjing.

In addition, Sun Ruyou, Fang Congzhe and others did not prevent the restructuring of the Jingcha, which also shows that the structure of the court has changed that they are not aware of.

Everyone knows that things are going to change, but the question now is how to protect ourselves before things change.

Jin Yiwei and the Donglin Party members are in Pizhou, six hundred miles away. Once the matter in Pizhou is resolved, it is time to deal with them.

In response to this, a fat-headed official wearing luxurious silk couldn't help but said:

"So what if we have Banzai to support them? As long as the officials in Huai'an and Xuzhou don't confess, they can't do anything to us."

"Did Wei Guogong think things were too simple? Is the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of people lying dead on the streets something that can be solved by killing a few fifth- and sixth-grade officials?" A civil servant sneered and pointed out the fat man.

identity of.

The Duke of Wei, Xu Hongji, occupied a large area of ​​cultivated land near Nanjing, and he also had a lot of salt and tea in his hands. It can be said that his family alone reduced the Ming Dynasty's tax by hundreds of thousands of taels.

If his words were heard by Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian, they might not be able to restrain themselves and take action.

They preyed on the common people, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and yet did not want to repent. Such an ugly appearance is really disgusting to both humans and gods.

"Okay, it's useless to say all this. It's better to listen to what Mr. Fang Ge and the others have to say."

A civil servant who had not spoken for a long time couldn't help but sigh, but as soon as he opened his mouth, everyone reluctantly closed their mouths.

The bustling city of Nanjing was surging secretly. They were waiting, but they didn't know that the person they were waiting for was also ready to give up on them.

Those who abandoned chess were eventually abandoned. While they were still waiting, Fang Congzhe and Sun Ruyou called Tang Binyin from the Xuan Party and Gu Tianjun from the Kun Party in a mansion in the capital of Shuntian Prefecture, Beizhili.

The four of them sat at the table, no matter how delicious the dishes on the table were, they had lost their aroma at this moment, like chewing wax.

At such a silent dinner, the first person who couldn't help but speak was Gu Tianjun, the leader of the Kunming Party who represented Suzhou, the prosperous place in the east of South Zhili.

He put down his wine glass, and the sound of the wine glass hitting the table made the other three look at him.

In front of everyone, Gu Tianjun said with a cold face:

"The great famine in Huaibei cannot be concealed at all now. The Suzhou and Songjiang areas have been affected. The price of rice is 130 cents. Who can afford such a rice price?"

"The rice price issue is easy to solve. As long as Yangzhou opens up its land supply, food prices in Huai'an and Yangzhou's Susong area will go down. The focus right now is how to deal with Beijing and Cha." Sun Ruyou looked calm, as if everything was still under his control.

middle.

"How can we deal with it? This year is different from previous years. All the people in charge of the Beijing Police are Donglin Party members. Most of them are officials who resigned after impeachment a few years ago." Tang Binyin of the Xuan Party couldn't help but said:

"At that time, you couldn't think of any way to eliminate the trouble. Now that you are being counterattacked, do you think of us?"

Tang Binyin was furious. They did not take advantage of the affairs in Huai'an Prefecture and Xuzhou, but were affected instead.

Now it's better. Not only has it been affected, but it actually helps the Zhejiang Party wipe its butt.

Tang Binyin and Gu Tianjun were both very angry, but they could not leave the Zhejiang Party behind.

Although the Donglin Party fights the most fiercely with the Zhejiang Party, it must deal with them first and then the Zhejiang Party.

The power of the Zhejiang Party is huge, and a single inspection of the capital will at best make them crippled and unable to destroy them.

Sure enough, Fang Congzhe smiled and smoothed things over and said:

"Things are still under control, so there is no need to worry."

"What I mean is very simple, that is, the Zhejiang Party officials involved in this case will be blamed. All you need to do is agree that Donglin will share the land tax and miscellaneous matters equally."

Fang Congzhe and Sun Ruyou are indeed old foxes. They know the characters of Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou and will definitely continue to investigate.

Therefore, they are not prepared to propose peace talks to Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou, but will directly push the benefits to more people.

After all, among the Donglin Party, officials from poor peasants and rich peasants were in the minority, and most of them were small and medium-sized landowners, country gentry, and gentry.

In this case, we should retain our strength, let the officials in Southern Zhili take the blame, remove them from exile, and then agree to the Donglin Party's political ideas of reducing land taxes, apportioning miscellaneous items, and eliminating tariffs.

To put it bluntly, the Zhejiang Party chose to take a step back and cede its interests to the Donglin Party and the imperial power.

After Tang Binyin and Gu Tianjun heard this, they both frowned and thought carefully about the pros and cons.

In particular, Gu Tianjun, Suzhou and Songjiang areas, after all, contracted a quarter of the taxes in Southern Zhili. If the land tax was included in miscellaneous items, it would harm the interests of local merchants and gentry. This is worth considering.

Compared to him, Tang Binyin didn't have so many worries.

Propaganda of the party in Fengyang area mainly focused on land tax and the interests of Lianghuai salt merchants.

The impact of miscellaneous items on salt merchants is minimal. After all, they use a small amount of salt to sell a large amount of private salt, and basically do not pay taxes on this.

On the other hand, land tax reduction and exemption are also good for them.

So after thinking about it, Tang Binyin nodded and said: "It involves the nearby officials from Huai'an and Xuzhou. I will go back and persuade them."

He nodded in agreement, and the only one left was Gu Tianjun from the Suzhou Kun Party.

Gu Tianjun frowned and raised his head and said, "I need to go back and think about this matter."

"Of course it's okay." Sun Ruyou nodded, and then said to show his sincerity:

"Early tomorrow morning, the Ministry of Personnel and the Cabinet will remove a group of officials, including 42 officials from Zhejiang, 14 from Nanzhili, 11 from Shandong, and four from Huguang."

Sun Ruyou's sincerity has indeed been shown. The officials of the Zhejiang Party who were dismissed were the Kundang and the Xuandang, plus the total number of the Qi Party and the Chu Party, there were thirteen more.

However, it is not difficult to see from this that Sun Ruyou is not planning to take the initiative to provoke the Donglin Party in Beijing this time.

In this way, the power of the Zhejiang Party will be greatly reduced before the next Beijing inspection.

Tang Binyin and others thought that was the end of the matter, but they never thought that Sun Ruyou continued:

"Not only that, I and Zhong Han will launch a cabinet, resign from office and return to their hometowns."

"..." After hearing this, Tang Binyin and Gu Tianjun frowned and couldn't sit still.

Once Fang Congzhe and Sun Ruyou resign from office, how can the five Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuan and Kun parties fight against the Donglin party?

In the current cabinet, Liu Yishen is a member of the Donglin Party, and although Shi Jikai is from Quanzhou, he is a non-party person and is politically biased towards the Donglin Party.

Although He Zongyan was a member of the Chu Party, he did not have much real power, so apart from Sun Ruyou and Fang Congzhe, there were only two Zhejiang Party officials, Zhu Guozuo and Shen Guan, left in the cabinet.

This is the result of the number of cabinet ministers being reduced to seven since October.
To be continued...