Chapter 231 0226 [Misleading Farmers to Rush for Gold]
Su Yuanlao said in surprise: "How dare he dig up the grave and take out the bones?"
Ju Ming said: "What we are digging is the Luze Garden."
This is no problem. Luzeyuan is a charity cemetery, and all the bodies are buried without anyone collecting them. No family members will make trouble.
Su Yuanlao drank two more cups and said tentatively: "The household registration in Jinzhou is 39,636. The former eunuch wanted to make up for it to 40,000. He has reported it to the Ministry of Household Affairs, but it has not passed the inspection. What do you think, eunuch Zhu?"
"
"Let nature take its course." Zhu Ming said ambiguously.
If it reaches 40,000 households, it can be called Wangzhou.
Fifteen years ago, when Fan Zhongyan's son Fan Chunchun was serving as the magistrate of Jinzhou, Cai Jing ordered an inventory of land acres and household registrations across the country.
Fan Chun Chun is very interesting. He deliberately only applied for more than 39,000 households. He was just shy of 300 households to collect 40,000. Once he collected 40,000, Fan Chun Chun's rank as a dispatch officer would be equivalent to a one-level promotion. But he
They just didn't get the number of households together.
Because if it becomes Wangzhou, Jinzhou’s burden will be even heavier!
Let nature take its course?
Elder Su thought about it for a moment and roughly understood what Ju Ming meant.
If you want to upgrade Jinzhou to Wangzhou, the Ministry of Household Affairs will first send someone to check. Zhu Ming's attitude is, whether you want to be promoted or not, I won't give you a bribe anyway, so there is no way to take advantage of it to make money!
Without bribing the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs, you cannot get promoted to the state level.
How poor is Jinzhou? The official data of the five counties combined is less than 40,000 households.
On the other side of Yangzhou, there are only three counties, but more than 45,000 households are registered.
Zhu Ming asked again: "Besides the elimination of Hua Shi Gang, what else is important in Jinzhou?"
Su Yuanlao said in a cryptic way: "Cheng Zhen, the envoy to Changping promoted by Jinzhou South Road, is a imperial scholar appointed by the officials. He only came to Xiangyang last year to take office. He has no roots and feet and it is difficult to control the public. Jinzhou promoted Changping to be a public official.
Li Daochong, the general magistrate, also serves as Cai Dang. The prefect can send his personal entourage to Hengkou Town to find out more."
"Thanks for reminding me!" Zhu Ming had a vague idea.
Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty assigned the mine supervision to the Changping Division. Promoting the Changping Envoy became an important position, and the traitors naturally rushed to install their own people.
Cheng Zhen belonged to the imperial party and only listened to the emperor's words. (He later became the prince's teacher and served as the Minister of Punishment during the Jingkang period. Due to insufficient gold and silver, he was beaten to death by the Jin soldiers.)
This man was famous for his knowledge but lacked the means to do things. He was sent by the emperor to serve as Changping envoy, but local officials were not very obedient. The gold mines in Jinzhou were even controlled by the Cai Party.
Half drunk, Mr. Su stood up to say goodbye, and Ju Ming sent him to the door of the hotel.
The next day.
The official ship was sailing down the Han River. Ju Ming disembarked halfway and took Li Bao, Zhang Bor and Yang Pu with him, pretending to be travelers and heading north over the mountains.
Bai Sheng, Liu Shiren, Liu Kui and others escorted Zheng Yuanyi to continue south, pretending that Ju Ming was still on the boat.
Hanyin County in the Song Dynasty was built on the bank of the Han River, and Zheng Yuanyi took a boat along that road.
Later Hanyin County was built on the bank of Yue River.
Moon River, Heng River (Ganges), golden sand everywhere!
A few days later, Ju Ming bypassed Malingguan and came to the south bank of the Yue River, eating dry food to satisfy his hunger.
After two more days of walking, it suddenly became clear that there were vast valleys on both sides of the Moon River that could be cultivated.
In the afternoon, Ju Ming found a village and planned to spend money to buy some dry food for supplies.
"There's something wrong here." Li Bao said.
Ju Ming looked ugly: "Of course something is wrong. It is spring plowing, but there are few farmers in the fields, which does not match the number of houses nearby."
Zhang Boring said: "Why don't you go into the village and ask?"
Zhu Ming shook his head: "You'll know when you go to the river."
The four people continued walking along the river bank, and soon discovered that a large number of farmers were panning for gold sand, and an archer was patrolling.
"What are you doing? Don't get close to the river bank and leave quickly!" the archer scolded.
Zhu Ming didn't look anymore, but walked towards the village.
Encountering a farmer digging a field with a hoe, Ju Ming asked, "Can't we rent oxen? Even if we don't have oxen, we can still drag the plow manually, so why use a hoe to plow the field?"
The farmer said nothing and continued to wave his hoe.
Ju Ming took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his clothes and trouser legs, went to the field and came to the farmer, took out a piece of silver and said, "Give me a hoe to try."
The farmer was stunned, couldn't resist the temptation, took the money, put it in his arms, and handed the hoe to Zhu Ming in a daze.
While Zhu Ming was digging the fields with a hoe, he asked: "How to plow the fields with a hoe?"
The farmer stood there, not knowing what to do, and replied: "The oxen in the village are exhausted, and there are not enough people in the family to drag the plow."
"Do you also go panning for gold during the spring plowing season?" Zhu Ming asked again.
The farmer looked at Ju Ming, then looked back at Zhang Bor, Li Bao and Yang Pu, as if he was a little afraid to tell the truth.
Zhu Ming took out another silver coin and said with a smile: "I am a businessman who comes to collect herbs from other places. I don't deal with the government."
After the farmer took the money, he hesitated and said in a low voice: "The official of Hengkou (Hengkou) Town asked the villagers to go panning for gold. They will not rest in the winter or in the spring. The chief security officer also received the errand and had to do it every month.
You have to hand in alluvial gold, if you don’t pay enough, you will be punished.”
"Is the entire Moon River like this?" Zhu Ming asked.
The farmer said: "The Henghe River is also like this."
Ju Ming asked again: "How much of the gold can you keep?"
The farmer said: "Everything has to be handed over to the security chief, who will take it to him for errands. There will be archers guarding him every day, and you will have to search your body when you get ashore. Anyone who dares to hide gold sand will be put in jail. The gold will not be kept, and the wages will not be paid. Only
Give me some rations every day."
This is treating farmers as gold-mining slaves!
The Yue River and the Heng River have a lot of gold sand. When the government was at their most ruthless, they let 20,000 people go down the river to pan for gold at the same time. Even the residents of the county were driven over.
But that was during the off-farm period, and it was also done during the spring plowing season. It had never happened before.
Ju Ming continued digging and plowing the fields, asking for more information.
We learned from farmers that Hengkou Town has a Hengkou Service that manages the nearby gold sands and gold mines.
The Hengkou Service was under the Changping Division and was managed by the Jinzhou Changping Event Officer, who was concurrently held by the Jinzhou Tongpan. Of course, the farmers did not know this information. They only knew that a high-ranking official was urging them.
Yang Pu said in a low voice: "Are we going to watch our husband dig the fields like this?"
"Don't bother me, my husband is visiting privately in private," Zhang Bor said.
Li Bao sighed: "My husband is such a good official. I'm afraid I can't find another one in the world. Even a hoe can be used so neatly."
"I'd better go to the fields." Yang Pu felt very awkward. He regarded Zhu Ming as his master. How could the master work in the fields while the servants watched from the fields?
Walking to Ju Ming's side, Yang Pu said: "Master, please rest a while and let me come."
Zhu Ming handed the hoe to Yang Pu and took the farmer to the field ridge to continue chatting.
That night, I stayed at the farmer's house and baked some grain pancakes to make dry food.
We continued moving forward the next day and found that everything along the Moon River was similar. This was one of the few areas suitable for farming in the entire Jinzhou, but spring plowing was seriously delayed due to gold mining.
Ju Ming was so angry that he couldn't even wait to go to Jinzhou City to take office, so he led his people directly into Hengkou Affairs Office in the town.
The local government office in the small town was actually built in a magnificent manner. When Zhu Ming saw it, he became even more furious.
"Idle people stop!" There are also guards guarding the gate here.
Zhu Ming showed his official badge: "The magistrate of Jinzhou is here to call out the official who is responsible for Hengguowu!"
After recognizing the official badge, the officer was so frightened that he turned around and ran away.
Soon, a civil servant appeared with his entourage, bowed and said: "Heng is responsible for official duties, and I have seen the prefect in person."
Ju Ming scolded: "Gather all the officials in the town and ask them to go to the four miles and eight villages to deliver the order to immediately stop all gold mining activities and resume spring plowing on both sides of the Yue River and Heng River!"
Ren Chongwei said: "Prefect, this is an errand arranged by Li Dafan."
Ju Ming said: "Since he is also on official business in Jinzhou Changping, I can't control how he mines gold, but he can't delay spring plowing. If he delays spring plowing, I can take care of it. This is the duty of knowing the state!"
Ren Chong still didn't want to hear the greeting, so he shrank his neck and said, "How about the prefect go and discuss it with Li Dapuan first?"
"The spring plowing season is so precious. If you delay it for one day, the food production will be reduced," Zhu Ming was furious. "Grandpa, it's useless to discuss with him. He manages the money, and I manage the people. If my people are disturbed, it will be the same if I, the King of Heaven, come."
Ren Chong said with a sad face: "Prefect, I really don't dare to lower my rank."
"Disobedient, right?" Zhu Ming shouted, "This person is responsible for the affairs of the field and is not good at managing field affairs, but he violates the rules and exceeds his authority to serve the people. This is the first crime! Not listening to the orders of the prefect and not correcting his mistakes after knowing them is the second crime.
Yeah! Maybe there is also the crime of covetousness, so I need to arrest him for interrogation. Someone, arrest this guy!"
Along the way, Zhang Boring and Li Bao were also angry. After hearing this, they immediately rushed to catch him.
Ren Chong shouted in panic: "Tanhualang, I am also a Jinshi, and Tanhualang and I are in the same class! We are in the same class, and we are of the same age..."
Zhu Ming grabbed the man's lapel and said, "Since we are Jinshi in the same discipline, we have attended the wedding banquet together. Even the officials dared to contradict me at the wedding banquet, so who do you think you are? Yang Pu, you are here to take care of this person."
Anyone who dares to let him go will be killed with a knife."
"Take the order!" Yang Pu held his head high and his chest high.
Zhu Ming summoned the remaining officers, took Zhang Bor and Li Bao, and set off on Hengkou Service's boat.
Encountering gold diggers along the way, he ordered them to go home and farm. The archers responsible for patrols were also sent to deliver the message that all farmers must stop gold mining.
The farmers were a little confused and stood on the shore with their sieves in hand, fearing that they would be retaliated against in a few days after returning home.
Ju Ming shouted: "Don't be afraid. I am Ju Ming, the new magistrate of Jinzhou. I am the most powerful official in the five counties of Jinzhou. From now on, whoever dares to force you to dig for gold during the busy farming season will go to Jinzhou Yamen."
Complain. I will support you and ensure that you do not delay the farming season!"
The farmers looked at each other, and suddenly someone knelt down and kowtowed.
Ju Ming added: "I heard that corn and sweet potatoes have also spread here. The seeds of corn and sweet potatoes were brought back from overseas by my father. As long as I am in Jinzhou for a day, I will not leave you alone!"
Hearing this, the farmers respected him even more. When they got the sweet potatoes and corn, they already knew that there was Duke Yuan Zhang in Xixiang.
In front of me is the prince of Yuan Zhang’s family!
The farmers thanked him profusely and left. Some of them had already walked far away and turned around to kowtow to Zhu Ming.
Ju Ming did not go to Jinzhou City for the time being, but took a boat to explore along the river to ensure that all the farmers had returned home to farm.
(I was confused in the last chapter. Shiquan County is a lower county, not a middle county.)
(In addition, there is indeed no record in official history that Song Sheng used human ashes to paint the walls. It was first seen in Ye Mengde's miscellaneous books, and later recorded in Buddhist and Taoist classics. Maybe the truth is not that outrageous, but he probably did something similar. Because Ye Mengde himself was Cai
Party, and also served as prime minister under Zhao Gou. Ye Mengde clearly wrote in the book that when Song Sheng was digging graves to retrieve bones, he was the prefect of Xuchang and was asked by Song Sheng to supply various supplies.)
