Chapter four hundred and seventieth: all in one sweep
Zhang Anshi is smiling.
Zhu Di nodded, obviously knowing that Zhang Anshi had something to say.
Then he said slowly and authentically: "So, what these people say is the truth?"
Zhang Anshi said: "What I reported back to Your Majesty is mostly the truth."
As soon as this statement came out, all the officials couldn't believe it.
What Zhou Juren and others complained about was not trivial.
It is a taboo to oppress the people in a calamity year.
Zhu Di frowned and said, "Huh?"
Zhou Juren and others took this opportunity to kowtow and said, "Your Majesty, please make the decision."
Zhang Anshi suddenly looked at Zhou Juren and others with disgust, and said: "Of course I will make the decision for you. Why are you so anxious?"
Having said that, Zhang Anshi turned to Zhu Di and said, "Your Majesty, what I and the Jin Yiwei did was just following the orders."
"By order..."
All officials were in an uproar.
Historically, only ministers have taken responsibility for the emperor's crimes. I have never seen a minister throw dirty water on the emperor.
This picture of An Shi is really a rebellious person.
After Zhou Juren heard this, his face turned pale, but he said desperately: "Does the imperial court also want to put the grassroots people to death? If the king wants his ministers to die, the ministers have to die, not to mention the grassroots people. But... the grassroots people, etc., do everything for their own good.
How can a kind person endure humiliation to such an extent... I beg your Majesty to spare my life."
Zhu Di felt upset.
Very good.
Why did it change from Jin Yiwei harming the people, to Zhang Anshi harming the people, and finally to him, the emperor, harming the people?
It's just that Zhu Di knew that Zhang Anshi always had his own strategies. His actions seemed to be confusing, but in fact he always had his own ideas.
So he suppressed the irritability in his heart and said slowly: "According to the order? What order did you receive?"
"Have you forgotten, Your Majesty?" Zhang Anshi said calmly and calmly: "Corrupt officials have colluded with local powerful and evil gentry to harm the people. Your Majesty ordered his ministers to catch them all."
When Zhu Di heard this, he glanced at Zhou Juren thoughtfully, then raised his eyebrows and said, "Who are the powerful and evil gentry?"
"It's right here." Zhang Anshi smiled, pointed at Zhou Ju and others, and said: "Not just them, but also everyone outside the Meridian Gate. Now that I have invited you to enter the urn, I have captured them all."
Zhou Juren and others shuddered and said one after another: "It's unfair, it's unfair..."
Zhu Di cheered up, sat down, and said, "Hmm? Tell me in detail."
Zhang Anshi said: "Your Majesty, when major disasters occurred in the four provinces, I realized that something was wrong. After that, Your Majesty appointed Duke Hu as an imperial envoy to inspect the four provinces, and I felt that something was wrong even more."
Zhu Di frowned and said, "Why?"
Zhang Anshi said: "There have always been natural disasters, and there must be man-made disasters. The court had to take precautions, and the only thing it could do was to send people with upright personalities to prevent them before they happened. But Hu Gong had a gentle temperament, and he was also a member of the Wenyuan Pavilion.
I am a great scholar, not from a state or county, and if I want to restrain these thieves who harm the people, I do not have high expectations for this."
"Is that all?"
Zhang Anshi said: "Not only that, I also passed the intelligence analysis of Jin Yiwei, especially the intelligence research led by His Highness King Yin."
Zhu Di was surprised and asked: "Can this be found out through research?"
Zhang Anshi smiled and said, "Everything can be found out through research."
With that said, Zhang Anshi took out a document from his sleeve and presented it to him.
Yishuha quickly took the document and handed it to Zhu Di.
Zhu Di saw the dense numbers above and was a little dazzled for a while.
Zhang Anshi explained: "Jinyiwei has collected a lot of data in various prefectures and counties across the country, including the price of land, the price of grain, the harvest of tenant farmers, and the annual income of landlords."
"Then we made a comparison based on the numbers over the years. In the past few years, there were no major disasters in the world, but the harvests of the landlords were decreasing day by day. Your Majesty, please look at the second page, where there is information about the income of the landlords in Henan.
According to rough calculations, the revenue in the past few years has dropped by a full 40%."
Zhang Anshi said: "This is a situation where landlords have access to food, because a large number of young people have begun to work, and some even go to the sea to run boats, resulting in the loss of manpower in the countryside. In order to retain tenant farmers, many landlords have adopted various methods.
In addition to turning the tenants into debt slaves by means of loans and loans, they also colluded with the government, set up traffic jams along the way, and even refused to issue road guides, etc."
"Of course, even so, this situation still persists, so...many landlords have to reduce land rents in order to attract tenant farmers."
"This is why their grain harvest has dropped by 40%. The reduction in tenant rent has also brought about many problems, such as the drop in land prices. Your Majesty, if you rent an acre of land to tenant farmers, it turns out that
They were asked to hand over three shi of rice, but now they can only collect two shi. There is no reason why the land price should not drop."
Zhu Di looked at those numbers seriously, and the more he looked at them, the more shocked he became.
Looking at these many numbers, I found that every number is related.
Zhang Anshi continued: "The decline in land rent, even though it was a good year, reduced the harvests of the gentry and landlords. But a good year also meant that the price of food fell. Therefore, the landlord's income was not just a simple drop of 40%;
More than 60%, Your Majesty will know by looking at the fourth page, where there are grain prices in previous years, which can prove it."
Zhu Di flipped through it subconsciously and said casually: "Isn't this a good thing for the people?"
"Good things come good things." After saying this, Zhang Anshi sighed and continued: "But the result is that they are angry with each other. In the past, tenant farmers had no bargaining power because they had no choice.
So, the landlords and gentry have the final say in everything. But after such a good thing happened, the conflicts between them began to intensify."
"Your Majesty, please look at page nine. This is the statistics in Hangzhou Prefecture. The statistics are the lawsuits suffered by the government and county governments in previous years. Five years ago, the number of lawsuits over tenancy in a county under Hangzhou Prefecture was only one year.
There were only seventeen cases, but in the past two years, they had increased to one hundred and seventy. It can be seen that the disputes between each other began to increase, and the contradictions also increased."
Zhu Di never expected that he could analyze these things based on the number of lawsuits.
In the past, the Jinyi Guards, whether in the era of Emperor Taizu Gao or in the era of Ji Gang, were known as Tiqi Tianxia, but their main duties were either secret sentry or eavesdropping on people in corners.
And Zhang Anshi can be regarded as playing Jin Yiwei to the fullest.
Zhu Di asked doubtfully: "So what?"
Zhang Anshi said: "As conflicts intensify and income decreases, problems will inevitably arise. In fact, these landlords and gentry still earn a lot of income, but there is another truth in the world. An average person can easily earn ten thousand taels of silver a year.
If a person is only allowed to earn only five thousand taels a year, even if he still has fine clothes and fine food, still has a lot of servants, and is still a noble person, resentment will inevitably breed."
"Because of this... Your Majesty, please read page 8. Page 8 is about the gambling stalls and public security situation in various prefectures and counties. In a certain county in Hangzhou, there were originally four gambling stalls, but they have since increased to eleven.
In addition to the home, there are also all kinds of robberies and robberies, which have begun to appear in endlessly."
Zhang Anshi analyzed patiently: "It is clear that the income of tenant farmers has increased, and many strong men have gained more livelihoods, but in fact... the number of strong men has increased instead. Why is this? Jin Yiwei's expectation is that when the income decreases significantly,
Under the circumstances, many landowners and gentry chose
Deterioration means that they start to get involved in many other businesses, and ordinary businesses do not have much profit. Only certain transactions of killing people and selling goods are huge profits. By virtue of their relationship with the government, they have already dominated the local area.
Using this as a cover, they have begun to become increasingly brutal."
Zhu Di continued to look at the numerous data and said, "Keep talking."
Zhang Anshi said: "Under this kind of contradiction and resentment, a major disaster broke out all the contradictions that were originally covered up. Because many people want to take advantage of this disaster to make a fortune to recover their losses.
.In addition, the resentments in daily life also need to be vented. Therefore, I predict that from the disaster, the situation may be even worse, even to the point of being emboldened and unscrupulous."
Zhu Di nodded: "Why didn't Jinyiwei come up before?"
Zhang Anshi said: "I've reported it. Jin Yiwei has been keeping these data in the briefing. It's just... the analysis and conclusion of the intelligence, but I dare not report it. Your Majesty, after all, this is just an analysis and it is unfounded. How dare I use this
To put it bluntly, if this is the case, wouldn’t I become that piece of shit like Qin Hui?”
Zhu Di glanced at him and said: "Qin Hui is Qin Hui, you are you, and he is unwarranted. Your analysis is a good way to govern the country."
Zhang Anshi said: "Actually...this set of things is not perfect enough, so I don't dare to rush..."
Zhu Di interrupted him and said, "Let's put these aside and talk about serious matters first."
Zhou Juren and others were frightened when they heard this.
They listened carefully, and although they looked innocent, they couldn't help but feel a little fear in their hearts.
Because...if you think about it carefully over the past few years, it is indeed the same as what Zhang Anshi analyzed.
And this feeling that I clearly have nothing to do with the person named Zhang, but never thought that they have been collecting, analyzing, and researching on you in the past few years, and seeing you through and through, is really shocking.
Creepy.
Zhang Anshi then said: "Because I had a premonition of this, I tried my best to buy grain in advance. Of course, I did not dare to doubt the good gentry of the Ming Dynasty, saying that they would definitely harm the people. Your Majesty knew that
My dear, I have already gained a bad reputation over the years. Because of this, I have no choice but to use the name of providing relief to the people in Zhili.
You can't buy too much food in Daming. After all, once you buy food on a large scale in the customs, it will definitely cause a sharp rise in food prices. This is not only useless but harmful to the relief, so although I am also buying food in some places that have not been affected by the disaster,
We have purchased some grain in various places, but most of them have been desperately seeking grain from various vassal towns in the past six months."
When Zhu Di heard this, he glanced at him with relief and said: "Be prepared for a rainy day and act fairly steadily. You can be considered a mature country planner. How much grain did you buy?"
"It's not much." Zhang Anshi said with a smile: "The main reason is that the vassals and towns are willing to support it, so... around 20 million stones were purchased."
Twenty million stones...
Zhu Di: "..."
Zhu Di's eyes widened. Obviously, this number was indeed a bit shocking.
Zhou Juren and others almost vomited three liters of blood.
What is the concept of twenty million stone? One stone is enough to feed and drink a man for a month. Twenty million stone is enough to feed and feed millions of people for a year.
They finally knew...why the damn food...could never be purchased.
Zhang Anshi, however, enjoyed everyone's shocked looks and smiled happily: "Of course, the main problem now is the lack of transportation capacity. If we continue to transport continuously and purchase tens of millions more stones, there will be no problem."
Zhou Juren: "..."
When Zhou Juren heard this, his heart felt as if something was suddenly blocked, and he almost couldn't breathe.
Can you imagine? This guy surnamed Zhang is really worse than a pig. He sells so much grain to them at ten times the price. How could he know that in the eyes of this surnamed Zhang, the grain he can use is really worth more than a mountain?
Too much, worthless.
Zhang Anshi continued: "Your Majesty knows that the price of food in the West is low, especially since each vassal has plantations all over the West. Coupled with the previous sea trade, transportation has been greatly convenient, so... so...
"
Zhu Di: "..."
Zhang Anshi said: "I have food here, and I heard that a large number of gentry and landlords in the four provinces colluded with the government and grain merchants and began to hoard goods. The price of grain has increased more than ten times. Has your Majesty forgotten that?
At that time, His Majesty summoned his ministers to see him, and he was very worried about this. I admired Your Majesty very much for loving the people like a son. I also secretly made up my mind to find a way to relieve Your Majesty's worries."
What Zhu Di wanted to say most at this time was that he felt sorry for the food and money!
He actually bought more than 20 million stones!
No matter how cheap the food in the West is, plus freight, only three to four million yuan of silver will be wasted.
But at this point, although he felt it was a pity, he just felt a little uncomfortable in his heart. As a majestic emperor, he still put on a magnanimous look, took a deep breath and said: "Well, can you have
This intention is not in vain for the prince’s words and deeds to teach you.”
Zhang Anshi said: "So while I was asking people to allocate grain, I was also selling it at high prices. It's strange to say that I was helping people in every prefecture and county in the four provinces. The more I helped, the more people bought my grain. And I had to ask for it.
You can't buy it at a high price. If I try to find a way to keep the price of food down, they won't be happy."
"I tried my best to provide relief to the people in the four provinces. The food distributed alone amounted to more than three million dan. In addition, I also found ways to order more than one million sets of ready-made clothes in Taiping Mansion, as well as various kinds of food.
More than 3 million kilograms of iron was grown. Tea was also supplied, worth 57,000 kilograms. In addition, we also wanted to do something
France purchased 70,000 cattle and horses, hundreds of thousands of stones of fish and meat, 1.7 million pairs of cloth shoes, 19,700 carts, 42,000 feet of oilcloth, 70,000 jins of tung oil, and 120,000 jins of salt.
, a total of 150,000 printed books...and other relief materials, which are countless and countless."
This number, coming from Zhang Anshi's mouth, was absolutely shocking.
You must know that throughout the dynasties, relief was only done by giving a little food, and most of the food distributed was coarse grains, which could be eaten without dying of hunger.
But Zhang Anshi is a generous person. This is not a relief. This is to support his own father.
Although Zhu Di also knew that Zhang Anshi spent a lot of gold and silver on relief, when he really heard the amount of relief, he couldn't help being shocked.
There was a sudden silence in the hall, and everyone's expressions were very exciting.
Zhu Di hesitated for a moment, but couldn't hold back his curiosity, so he asked: "How much money did you spend?"
Zhang Anshi didn't seem to notice Zhu Di's somewhat tense gaze at all, and said calmly: "It's not much. From food to various materials, I made a general calculation and it may cost tens of millions of taels of silver."
"..."
Many of Zhou Juren and others' eyes widened, and they were speechless for a moment.
Even at this time, Zhou Jusheng had a ridiculous idea. In order to harm them and cheat them of the little money and family property they had, Zhang Anshi actually spent tens of millions of taels of silver.
This man is insane!
However, Zhu Di and Baiguan's thoughts were full of pity.
It's just to provide relief to the victims, and the cost is too great. In the past, the imperial government's relief was even 10% of this, which was considered unprecedented.
Zhu Di was heartbroken, but he still smiled and said: "Okay, okay, okay. It seems that Zhang Qing has always kept my teachings in mind. Well... I am very pleased that Zhang Qing can love the people like his son."
Zhang Anshi said with a smile: "Your Majesty teaches you by words and deeds. When I am by your Majesty's side, even a dull-headed person can understand something."
But Zhu Di asked again: "But where did these more than ten million taels of silver come from?"
Zhang Anshi seemed hesitant now and said: "This... it's hard to say."
Zhu Di's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that the funds were transferred from a commercial bank?
You know, in the trading company, he, Zhu Di, is the major shareholder. Could this be taking money out of Zhang Anshi's own pocket?
Zhang Anshi said: "Your Majesty seems to have forgotten that I sell grain at a high price, but there are people in various states and counties who buy grain at a high price? These people... are really crazy when they buy it, as if they are risking their lives. Not only do they spend all their money
When I went out, I even mortgaged my property and borrowed money from everywhere... but I still had to buy it at a high price. I had no choice but to see how enthusiastic they were, so I had to... comply with their wishes."
Zhou Juren: "..."
Zhu Di finally breathed a long sigh of relief, and then said: "This grain... how much money did it cost?"
Zhang Anshi said: "Your Majesty... it's not much. I've probably calculated it. In fact, it's just... sold more than 10 million stones and got 16 million taels of silver, which is enough to cover the previous expenses."
Zhu Di: "..."
Zhou Juren: "..."
Baiguan: "..."
"Of course..." Zhang Anshi smiled again and said: "In addition to this income, there are some other incomes. If I carefully calculate it, it may not be a small amount."
"What profit?" Zhu Di looked at Zhang Anshi speechlessly.
Today was an eye-opener again.
This guy Zhang Anshi must have been a thief in his previous life, and thieves never make mistakes.