Ever since he watched Zhao Shancai's tragic death with a cold eye, Zhao Junchen no longer valued the gains and losses of individual talents so much.
In Zhao Junchen's eyes, Jiang Zheng is currently just a young talent whose position is questionable and can be put to use. Although he is rare, he is not indispensable.
In fact, when Zhao Shancai first assisted Prince Zhu Heyu, he only stabilized and improved Zhu Heyu's situation, but did not completely reverse the dilemma Zhu Heyu faced.
For Zhao Junchen, if Jiang Zheng sincerely wants to work for him, that is the best thing. Zhao Junchen is also willing to set up a stage for him to display his ambitions, but if Jiang Zheng has other intentions, he only needs to "deal with it" in time.
That's fine, at worst, he and Yang Xun will break up.
Compared with Jiang Zheng, Zhao Junchen is currently more concerned about the trends of the "Zhou Party".
Zhao Junchen overthrew the governor of Shandong Lu Yuanan this time, causing the "Zhou Party" to lose a frontier official, which was by no means a small matter.
According to the intelligence received by Zhao Junchen, several core figures of the "Zhou Party" have begun to take action in the past few days, running around to build momentum. It seems that they want to make a big move, targeting the "Zhao Party".
Therefore, Zhao Junchen's current top priority is to seize the opportunity to ease the relationship between the two parties before the "Zhou Party" launches an offensive. Based on the ideas provided by Jiang Zheng, he sets up a situation to sell a favor to the "Zhou Party".
Moreover, Zhao Junchen must act quickly, otherwise once the "Zhou Party" launches the offensive first, the "Zhao Party" will be forced to counterattack, and the situation will gradually get out of control, and it will be difficult to ease the relationship between the two parties.
.
And the target chosen by Zhao Junchen is the money bag of the "Zhou Party" - the Caoyun Yamen!
At the same time, Zhao Junchen also discovered that he had accidentally got a good card in his hand.
That is, the famous upright official Song Huancheng who Emperor Deqing forced into the Hubu Yamen a few days ago!
Zhao Junchen has become more and more skillful in using gentlemen like Yang Xun and Song Huancheng. He only needs to reveal the details of his political opponents to them, and then he can watch the fire from the other side and watch the changes.
*
In the eyes of many people, Song Huancheng, a smelly and hard manhole, is undoubtedly a blessing in disguise.
Since Song Huancheng fainted from hunger in the Rites Yamen, under Zhao Junchen's secret promotion, his reputation has greatly increased, and his deeds have been widely spread among all walks of life in the capital.
To this day, the government and the public, whether sincerely or against their will, are all praising Song Huancheng's clean style. Folk commentators have adapted his stories and spread them everywhere. The Qingliu people are more like smelling meat.
They are like flies, vying to be the first to make friends with him, build relationships, and want to take advantage of the opportunity.
In the end, even Emperor Deqing heard about Song Huancheng's deeds, summoned him specially, comforted him with gentle words, promoted him to an official position, and transferred him to the Ministry of Household Affairs as a doctor in the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The Hubu Yamen originally had financial power. In recent years, it has gradually been involved in the salt industry, water transportation, field grain and other more profitable ways. It can be said that it is the most lucrative yamen in the temple.
Emperor Deqing arranged Song Huancheng to work in the Hubu Yamen, obviously because he wanted to use the wealth of the Hubu Yamen to reward and appease Song Huancheng.
However, neither the Hubu Yamen nor Song Huancheng were happy with Emperor Deqing's arrangement.
To the Hubu Yamen, Song Huancheng was as smelly and hard as a stone in a latrine. He was completely unable to be bribed and controlled. He might make a big trap for him at some point.
As for Song Huancheng, he has always been loyal to the public and obeys the law, and he doesn't care about money and money at all. He only sees the collusion and corruption of the Hubu Yamen. It is simply a stinking ditch where rats gather, and it is not suitable for people like him to stand at all.
.
However, because Emperor Deqing had opened the golden gate, the Hubu Yamen had to reluctantly accept Song Huancheng, and Song Huancheng had to reluctantly go to the Hubu Yamen to run errands.
At the beginning, everything went as expected. All the officials in the Hubu Yamen deliberately excluded Song Huancheng, and Song Huancheng himself did not bother to associate with the corrupt officials in the Hubu Yamen.
These days, when Song Huancheng went to the Household Department Yamen every day to run errands, he was alone. Almost no Household Department officials were willing to contact him, so he could only sit idle all day long.
But that day, a household manager named He Wei suddenly found Song Huancheng.
These days, He Wei is one of the few officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs who communicates with Song Huancheng.
Of course, He Wei and Song Huancheng occasionally communicated. This does not mean that the two have similar interests. In fact, He Wei, like most officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs, is a greedy person. However, He Wei has always had a smiley style.
, laughs without saying a word to everyone he sees, doesn’t offend anyone easily, and doesn’t care at all about his hot face and cold buttocks.
After seeing Song Huancheng, He Wei still smiled without saying anything, then took out a stack of banknotes and placed them in front of Song Huancheng.
Seeing He Wei's behavior, Song Huancheng's expression suddenly changed, and he asked coldly: "Master He, what do you mean? In broad daylight, in the imperial court, do you still want to bribe openly?"
He Wei still didn't care about Song Huancheng's bad face, and explained with a smile: "Sir Song, please don't misunderstand, it's not that I want to bribe you, I'm just a handler... This batch of money, in fact,
The above is the contribution of the Water Transport Yamen. Everyone in our Hubu Yamen has a share, and we have it every year. These banknotes are just your share this year."
Speaking of this, He Wei added meaningfully: "If Mr. Song accepts this money, not only will it improve the life of your family, but from now on you will be one of our Hubu Yamen's own, and you don't have to be like this at all."
Like sitting on the bench."
Hearing He Wei's words, Song Huancheng was furious at first, feeling that He Wei was humiliating him, but then he couldn't help but be stunned.
Although Song Huancheng was not popular among officials, he also knew the basic situation of some temple factions.
As far as Song Huancheng knows, the Water Transport Yamen is the sphere of influence of the "Zhou Party", while the Hubu Yamen is the sphere of influence of the "Zhao Party". Logically speaking, with the influence of the "Zhou Party", there is no need to please the "Zhao Party"
Recently, these two factions have been very unhappy because of the dismissal of Shandong Governor Lu Yuanan. The conflicts have gradually accumulated, and the next conflict will break out at any time.
Under such circumstances, why did the Water Transport Yamen of the "Zhou Party" deliberately spend a large sum of money to honor the Hubu Yamen of the "Zhao Party"?
So, out of curiosity, Song Huancheng suppressed his anger and asked: "Why does the Caoyun Yamen use money to honor the officials of the household department? Isn't it said that the relationship between Zhao Cabinet Minister and Zhou Shoufu has been bad recently?"
While talking, Song Huancheng looked through the pile of banknotes in front of him and found that there were at least one thousand taels.
Song Huancheng himself was just a Hubu doctor, and he was a Hubu doctor who had no power and could only sit on the bench. If even he could receive a thousand taels of silver as a tribute, then what would happen to the Hubu Yamen?
How much filial piety can the ministers and ministers receive? How much money can all the officials of the Hubu Yamen receive? Not to mention Zhao Junchen, the man behind the Hubu Yamen. Added together, these sums of money are definitely not a small number.
Moreover, according to He Wei, this amount of money actually comes every year!
He Wei smiled, as if he wanted to show off the importance of the Hubu Yamen to Song Huancheng, and explained in detail: "I know what Mr. Song means, but the conflict between the 'Zhao Party' and the 'Zhou Party' does not hinder the Hubu Yamen.
Cooperation with the two major water transportation yamen!
In fact, the Water Transport Yamen is extremely powerful. It is not only in charge of the transportation of grain and silver, but also in charge of the dredging of rivers and flood gates, as well as the four major water warehouses of Huai'an, Xuzhou, Dezhou, and Linqing, as well as
The four major shipbuilding yards...are second only to our Hubu Yamen in terms of oil and water supply!
However, all the powers and responsibilities of the Caoyun Yamen require the support of the Hubu Yamen. Therefore, in order to facilitate the work of the Caoyun Yamen, they must express themselves. Otherwise, if our Hubu Yamen is slightly stuck, they will immediately be in trouble.
This year's situation is even more special. Although the two big figures Zhao Gechen and Zhou Shoufu were somewhat unhappy with each other, the Caoyun Yamen was too unreasonable for one thing, so they did not care about the conflicts between the big figures above and still tried their best.
Maintain the relationship with the Hubu Yamen."
Song Huancheng's eyes flashed and he asked: "Oh? What bad things did Caoyun Yamen do?"
He Wei smiled again and explained nonchalantly: "This matter is not a secret, and there is no need to hide it deliberately... Mr. Song, you must have heard the news. At the end of last year and the beginning of this year,
Due to the blockage of a large section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, water transportation was delayed in reaching the capital, which caused a lot of turmoil and even indirectly caused the downfall of the former chief minister Shen Changmao."
After seeing Song Huancheng nod, He Wei continued: "During that time, everyone was only paying attention to Shen Changmao's downfall, but ignored another more important thing, that is, when the canal was blocked, it was necessary to transport grain and silver.
It cannot be transported to the capital in time, but the millions of canal workers in the canal transport yamen still have to be chewed by people. The canal has been blocked for more than a month, and the food consumption during this period... is naturally extremely shocking!"
After a pause, He Wei asked: "Master Song, how much grain do you think the capital center has received in total this year?"
This is a public figure. Although Song Huancheng has been sitting on the bench during this period, he has been familiar with official affairs. He immediately replied: "So far, two million stone grains have been received...According to the plan of the Ministry of Revenue, this number will not wait until
By the end of this year there should be about 7 million stone."
Seeing Song Huancheng blurt out the answer, He Wei couldn't help but be a little surprised, but his next words made Song Huancheng jump up immediately.
"Yes, the amount of grain currently transported to the capital is about two million shi, but according to the calculations of the Ministry of Revenue Yamen, the grain consumption of the Caoyun Yamen in transporting grain during this period... is eight million shi
!”
At first, Song Huancheng thought that he had heard wrongly, or that He Wei had said it wrong, so he confirmed and asked: "Eight million stones? How much? Is it eight million stones?"
He Wei nodded and replied in a positive tone: "That's eight million dan, which is four times the amount of grain!"
Song Huancheng immediately jumped up and asked loudly and unbelievably: "Why is there so much food consumption? Is it because the Water Transport Yamen is greedy? Why is the Hubu Yamen indifferent to this situation?"
He Wei also felt incredible when he saw Song Huancheng being so excited.
It’s not your own food, so why should you care so much?
However, for some reasons, He Wei still patiently replied: "This situation is actually normal. There are too many consumptions along the water transportation route. The cost is often three to five times that of grain and silver. We encountered a situation some time ago.
When the canal is blocked, there will be more of them, and everyone is not surprised!
If the Hubu Yamen insists on pursuing the case, the Water Transportation Yamen will be able to find a lot of excuses, and the number of accounts will be hard to find fault with. In the end, it will just cause trouble, and they can only let it go, and it will not change anything at all.
However, the Water Transport Yamen finally felt that it was wrong, so it rushed to send tributes to our Household Department Yamen, trying to block our mouths, but we just drank soup, and the real fat was left in the Water Transport Yamen!"
In fact, although what He Wei said is true, it is also a bit "avoiding the light and taking the serious".
Although the cost of water transportation is extremely staggering, these costs are shared between the local government and the central government, and the cost shared by the local government is more than twice that of the central government.
The "food consumption of 8 million dan" mentioned by He Wei not only deliberately included the cost shared by the local government, but also included the cost of maintaining the canal, the cost of repairing and building ships, and the private collection of canals.
Costs such as replenishment, bonuses, top-ups, etc. at the time of tax.
But overall, the cost of water transportation is indeed as much as three to five times that of Caoliang and Caoyin.
Song Huancheng was dumbfounded for a long time, then murmured: "Popular food prices have been rising repeatedly. In recent times, I have seen many suffering people who cannot afford to eat and have sallow complexions... Therefore, it is not that the court has no food, but that most of them
Is all the food wasted on the transportation road? The water transportation yamen are full of food, but the people are hungry and walking on the road?...Is there really no way?"
Seeing Song Huancheng's reaction, He Wei's eyes flashed and he understood that he would complete the task soon, so he said: "As for the solution, there is one..."
Song Huancheng quickly asked: "What can we do?"
He Wei laughed and said: "That is to change river transportation to sea transportation, and change the river channel into sea canal! According to the estimates of the Ministry of Household Yamen, if the grain is transported by sea, the cost can be reduced by about 70%. Each time 10,000 shi of grain is transported,
The food consumption is only about 8,000 dan."
Song Huancheng slapped his forehead and said: "Yes, you can change the river channel into a sea canal! The dispute between the river channel and the sea canal has been going on in the court for more than a hundred years. How could I forget this!"
Then, Song Huancheng asked again: "Since the Ministry of Revenue Yamen has made accurate estimates and has seen the benefits of sea and water transportation, why has it not tried to change the bad water transportation policy? Are we just watching a large amount of grain and grass being wasted?"
Seeing Song Huancheng's dedication to the public, He Wei still couldn't understand it. He even felt that Song Huancheng's performance was too exaggerated and was really a dog meddling in other people's affairs.
So, He Wei shrugged and said casually: "Master Song, since you also know that the imperial court's dispute between the river and the sea has been going on for more than a hundred years, but it still cannot change the current situation of the river, you should know about this matter.
How big the resistance is, not only is the food and clothing of millions of water workers dependent on it, but also many powerful people are using the river channel to make profits for themselves...
So, why does the Ministry of Household Affairs want to be the leader? Don’t you think you have enough enemies? Isn’t it good to receive a tribute from the Water Transport Yamen every year? Not only is it beneficial, but it is also relaxing! What’s more, the Water Transport Yamen is the ‘Zhou Party’
If the Ministry of Revenue wants to propose the sea canal issue, the relationship between Zhao Gechen and Zhou Shoufu will no longer be the mutual hostility it currently has. It will definitely be a fight to the death!
Mr. Song, listen to my advice, there are some things that we little people should not worry about at all. There are too many things in the world that we are not capable of managing, and we cannot control them at all... Anyway, it is not a waste of our own money and food, and there are also
There are benefits to be gained, but it will be over if you just turn a blind eye!"
Hearing this answer, Song Huancheng was stunned again, and then he realized that the He Wei in front of him was not the same as him at all, and he should not count on all the beetles in the household including He Wei.
!
Previously, because He Wei took the initiative to reveal the news, Song Huancheng actually regarded He Wei as a fellow traveler for a moment, which was simply stupid!
After understanding this, Song Huancheng's expression became cold again, and he was unwilling to continue talking to He Wei. He just pushed back the pile of banknotes in front of him and said coldly: "Now that I understand the origin of this money,
I can’t accept it any more, so please ask Mr. He to take it back.”
He Wei stared at Song Huancheng's solemn face and confirmed: "Sir Song, I just said it, right? By accepting this money, you will be one of our Hubu Yamen from now on. This is a good way for you to integrate into everyone.
This opportunity...maybe this is the last chance! Are you willing to be ostracized and sit on the bench?"
"Everyone has his own ambitions, and people with different paths should not work together!"
After saying that, Song Huancheng lowered his gaze and no longer looked at He Wei.
He Wei's face was a little embarrassed, but he still managed to maintain a smile, reached out to take back the banknote, nodded and said: "In that case, I won't disturb Mr. Song! ... By the way, our Hubu Yamen will walk two steps eastward.
There is a new teahouse opened in the same street. The tea there is very good. Let’s go have tea together when you have time!”
After saying that, He Wei left Song Huancheng's office room with a smile.
However, when He Wei walked out of the room, his expression suddenly turned sinister and vicious. After thinking for a moment, he turned and walked to the room of Li Chengru, the Minister of Household Affairs.
After He Wei met Li Chengru, he naturally added fuel to the fire and confused right and wrong. He not only said that Song Huancheng refused to accept the benefits, but also said that when Song Huancheng refused to accept the benefits, he said bad words and was extremely disrespectful to Li Chengru.
After hearing He Wei's description, Li Chengru was naturally angry at Song Huancheng's disrespect, but he did not react on the spot. Instead, he quickly left the Hubu Yamen and rushed to Zhao Mansion to report the news to Zhao Junchen.