Of course, there was no bulk Jiangsu in the Ming Dynasty. Huainan Province was to the north of the Yangtze River, and Zhejiang Province was to the south of the Yangtze River.
Huainan and Zhejiang provinces, due to their large area, large population and prosperous economy, have been continuously divided over the past two decades.
A prefecture in the northwest corner of Huainan Province was swallowed up by Henan Province. A prefecture in the southwest corner of Huainan Province was swallowed up by Hubei Province.
Zhejiang Province was even worse. Wenzhou and Chuzhou were transferred to Fujian. The establishment of Nanjing directly caused Zhejiang to suffer heavy losses.
Even Changzhou, Jiangyin, Yixing, Wuxi, Guangde... were all placed under the jurisdiction of Nanjing's Jinling Prefecture, and one-third of Taihu Lake became Nanjing's territory.
The fishermen in Taihu Lake row their boats and cast their nets. Once the net is cast down, half of the net may be cast in Zhejiang Province and half of the net may be cast in Jinling Prefecture, Nanjing.
Due to its extremely prosperous economy, Changzhou has never abolished the prefecture-level organizational system. This is ultimately bad. It is a prefecture itself, and its superiors are still prefectures.
The imperial court has decided that if the Changzhou prefect is transferred, Changzhou Prefecture will be downgraded to a state, and Wuxi County under its jurisdiction will also be removed.
Zhu Guoxiang visited the Taihu Lake area for more than a month. He had such a great time that he reluctantly continued his journey south. He went to Jiaxing first, then to Hangzhou, and lived directly in a manor by the West Lake.
Li Wenhui, the governor-general of Zhejiang Province, said: "This house was originally Zhu Meng's manor, and it also included a large area of ​​lakes and farmland. The land was so vast that when the government confiscated it and auctioned it, it was broken into five parts for bidding.
Three of them were bought by the same wealthy businessman at a high price, barely preserving the integrity of Zhu Meng's garden."
"Who owns it now?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.
Li Wenhui said: "Return to the Hangzhou government."
Zhu Guoxiang felt curious: "Where is its original owner?"
Li Wenhui said: "Since Zhu Meng, the garden here has changed three owners. One owner was beheaded, another owner was exiled, and another owner went bankrupt and went to jail."
Zhu Guoxiang: "..."
This garden located by the West Lake has changed several names since it was too evil. It is currently called Changsheng Garden.
When it comes to choosing a name, make up for whatever is missing.
It's a pity that it didn't last forever.
The first owner was Zhu Meng and his son, who were killed by Song Huizong himself.
The second owner was Song Huizong.
The three owners at the back were all wealthy businessmen from Zhejiang, and they were all involved in major corruption cases. Some were beheaded, some were exiled, and some were imprisoned.
Li Wenhui said: "The Hangzhou government office has put this house on the market for several years, and no one has been willing to bid again. It is usually idle and lacks maintenance, but people often come to play. Government or private scholars gather, multiple choices
It will be held in Changsheng Garden."
Zhu Guoxiang took a tour and said: "It seems that it has been repaired recently."
"It hasn't been overhauled, it's just to get rid of the bad luck," Li Wenhui said. "People in Hangzhou say that this garden is full of evil spirits, but His Majesty, His Majesty, has destiny in his body, so he is not afraid of any evil spirits."
"Hahahaha!" Zhu Guoxiang laughed when he heard this.
What he was laughing at was that the Ming Dynasty was so effective in combating corruption that it killed several wealthy businessmen in Hangzhou and even scared no one to the point of buying the garden.
The Li Wenhui in front of him was the first Jinshi of the Ming Dynasty.
His ranking in the imperial examination was not high, but his political achievements were outstanding.
He first served as censor, investigating and punishing 47 officials and 338 official officials. Then he became a civil affairs official. Everywhere he went, he left a reputation as a "cruel official" and "incorruptible".
Historically, Li Wenhui also served as an official in this style.
At that time, the Song Dynasty had just moved south, and many officials, whether they were from the peace faction or the war faction, had no property in the south. After they arrived in Jiangnan, regardless of their political stance, they were busy embezzling money and bending the law to make money.
As the imperial censor, Li Wenhui impeached corrupt officials every now and then, offending both the warring faction and the peace faction. He also went to suppress the pirates as deputy prime minister, and soon used the method of division and co-optation to force the pirates to surrender. And organized them into the navy.
As soon as Li Wenhui returned to the court after wiping out the pirates, he was dismissed as prime minister by Qin Hui. He spent the next ten years living in seclusion writing books.
It was not until Qin Hui was seriously ill that Li Wenhui was appointed. In four years, he served as three magistrates and one magistrate of a state, all with outstanding political achievements. He presented the "Ten Essentials of Zhongxing" to the Southern Song Dynasty court, covering ten aspects including politics, military, diplomacy, and economy. Analysis, hoping that the imperial court can eliminate the ills and revitalize the country.
Soon, he died of illness.
Li Wenhui in this time and space was remembered by Ju Ming. Because he was from the Yushi faction, he offended all other factions, and was impeached many times by officials from various factions. Every time he was investigated, he was honest and selfless, and he was also found His political achievements were deliberately suppressed.
At first, it was Chen Dong who was trying to protect him, but later it was directly promoted by Ju Ming himself.
Li Wenhui was able to serve as the chief envoy to the left in Zhejiang because Ju Ming bypassed the court and appointed him. Many chief officials in Zhejiang Province had been dismissed, and the official atmosphere was always bad, so only people like Li Wenhui could control him.
Li Wenhui is one of Ju Ming's unofficial candidates for assistant prime minister.
He can only be the assistant prime minister, not the prime minister, because his popularity in the officialdom is "too poor" and he cannot effectively integrate the various teams of the court.
There are six or seven other ministers like this.
Only with officials like them around could the Ming Dynasty maintain its vitality.
Looking at Song Bo, the right-hand chief envoy next to him, he knew that although the two were of equal rank, Song Bo was suppressed throughout the whole process and did not even dare to take away Li Wenhui's words.
Li Wenhui didn't regard Song Bo as a human being. In his eyes, this colleague's fate was already decided, and it was nothing more than beheading or exile.
When you come to Zhejiang to do business, you have to pack a few large ones.
He is incorruptible and selfless, and he is protected by the emperor, so he is naturally not afraid of any officials.
Zhu Guoxiang, his wife and children lived in Changsheng Garden and went boating in the West Lake from time to time. He liked this evil garden very much and even wanted to stay for two more years.
After almost completing his tour of the West Lake, Zhu Guoxiang went ashore again to enjoy the fireworks on earth.
The outer port of Hangzhou is very busy, and the pier on the West Lake side is equally busy.
Goods from various prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River flow here through several rivers, and most of them are shipped to outer ports for overseas trade. Goods from overseas and Fujian and Guangdong are also transported here from the outer ports of Hangzhou and dispersed to inland areas through rivers. .
"Hey, why are there still Tibetan people working as coolies at the dock?" Zhu Guoxiang was quite curious.
It was impossible for the officials of the Third Division of Zhejiang to accompany him all the time. Zhu Guoxiang had long since sent him off to handle official duties. The official tour guide beside him was Zhang Yan, the Zhejiang academic envoy.
Zhang Yan didn't know either: "I'm going to call someone here for questioning."
Soon, a ghost coolie was summoned and knelt down in front of Zhu Guoxiang and kowtowed.
Zhu Guoxiang asked him to stand up and speak: "Which country are you from before?"
Gui Lao replied: "Xiao Min's name is Yi Bangchang. I don't know which country he was from before. A few years before the fall of the Song Dynasty, Xiao Min came to Hangzhou with his father to settle down. At that time, Xiao Min was only six or seven years old."
"Are you losing money in business?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.
Gui Lao said: "The imperial court issued a decree that the Tibetan people were not allowed to intermarry with each other. The common people could not find a suitable wife at that time, so they married a woman who was a big eater. I thought that I was an iron chip man, and my wife was a big cannibal, so it was not considered a big deal.
Endogamy. As a result, we were reported and our property was confiscated."
Zhu Guoxiang laughed when he heard this: "In the eyes of officials of the Ming Dynasty, how can one distinguish between iron filings and food? You work hard, and your children should not get married indiscriminately."
"Yes..." Gui Lao looked very disappointed. He thought the Emperor was going to return the family property.
The matter is very clear. A Jew married an Arab, and their families were all ransacked!
This stems from the Ming Dynasty's "Intermarriage Law", which stipulated that foreigners who came to settle in the Ming Dynasty could only intermarry with all ethnic groups in China.
Violators will have their homes confiscated!
In practical terms, it doesn't matter what ethnic group you are from, as long as you look obviously different, you are a foreigner.
If they look similar, even if they are of a different race, the government won't bother to care.
The Jew in front of him was just unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. His family's business, which he had been running for many years, was turned back to its original shape due to a marriage and could only work as a coolie.
There are many such cases, mainly concentrated in the southern coastal provinces.
Nowadays, no one dares to violate the law. Regardless of whether they come from India, the Middle East, or Arabia, everyone must marry locals.
Han Chinese families of the same class naturally look down upon them.
No matter how rich these foreigners are, they can only marry poor Han people, hoping that after two or three generations of mixed blood, the foreign blood will be washed away from their bodies.
Leave Daming?
Only a fool left. Where can I find a stable country like Ming Dynasty?
Take the Jews, for example. Their core settlements have been occupied by the Crusaders. The Crusaders massacred them wildly and exploited the Jews for decades. It was not until 20 years ago that their policies relaxed slightly.
Most of the Jews who were driven out by the Crusaders now moved to Baghdad, where they were also oppressed by the Seljuk Sultan (the second-ranked Sultan).
There are also Jews in Europe.
Take the UK as an example. The Jews, whose population is less than 1/400, pay 8% of the country’s taxes to the UK. Who makes them greedy and rich? In another hundred years, Britain will launch a vigorous platoon
Just exercise.
To be continued...