Chapter 358 The emperor was furious
“Hateful!”
After reading the secret report, Zhao Xing threw Zazi out angrily.
He heard that people in Jiangzhou were revolting and thought about countless possibilities.
I even thought about whether there was a wizard cult instigating it behind the scenes.
However, after reading the secret report, I found that there were indeed signs of instigation behind this rebellion, but it cannot be confirmed yet.
But the fundamental reason is that the government forced the people to rebel.
The maids and eunuchs serving in the palace were so frightened that they did not dare to breathe.
The only sound in the hall was Zhao Xing's angry breathing.
After a while, Zhao Xing calmed down a little and said: "Go, summon all the ministers to come over to discuss matters, and also send word to Ningyuan Marquis Gu Yankai."
"Yes!" Sanshui responded and hurried away.
Zhao Xing sat down, picked up the tea cup and took a sip, feeling that the anger in his heart had subsided a little.
After a cup of tea, Han Zhang and others walked into the hall.
"I will pay my respects to Your Majesty!" Han Zhang and others saluted.
“Have you ever heard of the saying that common people dare not have money?”
Zhao Xing looked at Han Zhang and others and said: "I heard that some people are making arrangements to let their widows remarry, and some are hurriedly separating from their relatives just to divide their family's property. The property that cannot be divided is even returned. I will give it to my relatives and friends for free."
Hu Zhongyan and others lowered their heads and said nothing. Han Zhang was silent for a while and bowed: "Your Majesty, I am here. I know something about it.”
“I don’t know the sufferings of the people. Please tell me in detail.”
“Your Majesty, the people don’t dare to have money because some local officials are poor. , Wealthy people will be assigned to serve as yamen, in charge of warehouses and tax collection. According to regulations, if taxes cannot be collected, or official properties are damaged, the yamen must pay compensation.
"What the Grand Prime Minister said is consistent with what I heard. When I heard this statement, it was a little unbelievable. Isn't this going to force the common people who serve as yamen to death? No wonder the common people dare not have money. If If it were me, I wouldn’t dare to have money!”
The more Zhao Xing spoke, the angrier he became. He stood up, pointed at Han Zhang and others, and said, "You are all ministers of the dynasty, and you enjoy high-ranking officials and generous salaries. It can be seen that the salaries you receive are all the people's wealth. But you have all held office in local places. Job, don’t you know? Do you know this situation?
I killed a few corrupt officials, what did you tell me about the ancestral method? A group of scholars blocked the palace gate, and I imprisoned them. You knelt to death outside the hall, why did you care? Live the death of the people in the world Live?"
"Calm down your Majesty!"
"Calm down?" Zhao Xing shouted angrily: "The people of Jiangzhou have been forced to rebel. How can I calm down since the founding of the Song Dynasty? , people rebel frequently "Fan, I have been thinking about the reason before, but now I understand that it was all forced to rebel by the officials."
Because the people rebelled, Mr. Shen did not dare to conceal it in the secret report, giving a detailed explanation. What happened.
After the floods receded in Jiangzhou and several neighboring states, the government organized post-disaster reconstruction work according to Zhao Xing's wishes.
Before Xianggong Shen left, Zhao Xing once told him that the government would pay and the people would contribute to rebuild the houses for the people who had lost their homes.
The cost of building houses in ancient times was not high. Most of the raw materials were collected directly. The most important thing was labor.
The bulk of the expenditure is still food, but not much in terms of money.
The people affected by the disaster had to rely on the imperial government for relief, so this could be regarded as work-for-relief.
Xianggong Shen also strictly implemented Zhao Xing's instructions in Jiangzhou.
However, the fault lies with local officials.
During the disaster relief, because the imperial court sent a relevant person to supervise, they did not dare to be greedy, or to go too far, so no trouble was caused.
But post-disaster reconstruction is different. It is a separate reconstruction for each county, involving more than 20 counties and hundreds of villages in four states. Xianggong Shen and others sent by Zhao Xing cannot supervise it. .
Now those county officials were emboldened. They withheld the money and food allocated by the court for reconstruction and assigned many wealthy people to supervise the reconstruction work.
But only a small part of the money and food was given, and the remaining part was just wanted by these wealthy households, which was considered a common practice.
Han Zhang said that according to the rules, once taxes cannot be paid, or official properties are damaged, the Yamen must compensate everything.
In fact, when official properties are damaged or there is a tax gap, local officials directly assign wealthy households to serve as Yamen in order to let them spend money to fill the vacancy. This wealthy household does not refer to the landlords and gentry, but to relatively wealthy families among ordinary people.
Local people are actually somewhat accustomed to this practice.
However, this time is different. The homes of the wealthy households have also been destroyed. Now the government is forcing them to pay to fill the vacancies. Naturally, they are more resistant.
They did not dare to resist, so they could only transfer what the county magistrate gave them to those ordinary people.
Forcing the people to work, they were fed rice soup with almost no rice visible.
The people of the Han family have a great advantage, that is, they endure hardships and stand hard work.
Even being squeezed to death, many people dare not rebel.
In addition, although this time was very difficult, it was to build homes for them, so the people still endured it.
But someone was instigating it behind the scenes and told the people that the court had allocated enough money and food, but all the money and food had been embezzled by corrupt officials.
Instigated by thoughtful people, the people became angry and went to the county town to ask for an explanation.
Those county officials were worried that the matter would spread, so they directly sent out government officials to expel the people.
As a result, during the expulsion process, some civilians and officials died.
When a death occurred, the matter escalated. In addition, officials died. The instigators spread the word that killing officials was tantamount to rebellion, and then the government would send out officers and soldiers to kill them.
Those people were frightened and instigated to rebel.
The same thing happened in more than a dozen counties in Jiangzhou at the same time. By the time Shen Xianggong got the news, it was already too late to put down the rebellion.
Those people have been incited to rob the government offices, and even several county magistrates have died.
Zhao Xing not only hated the instigators behind the scenes, but also hated the officials.
If it weren't for them, even if someone instigated it, the people wouldn't be able to rebel.
The vitality of the four states was severely damaged by the floods, and it will take several years to recover. Now that there is a rebellion, it may not be possible to recover in seven or eight years.
There are several states near Jiangzhou, but the relatively famous big states in the south of the Yangtze River, even if they are not as good as places like Suzhou, Hangzhou and Yangzhou, they will not lag too far behind.
What Zhao Xing is most worried about is that the rebellious people will spread to other places and affect other states and counties.
"Your Majesty, the most important thing now is to settle the matter as soon as possible. If Your Majesty wants to hold people accountable, you have to wait until the matter is settled." Han Zhang said.
Zhao Xing heard this and said: "I am going to ask the Grand Prime Minister to go to Jiangzhou in person to appease the people on my behalf. Only the first culprit will be punished, and the rest will be forgotten!"
"No, Your Majesty!" Hu Zhongyan said: "It is true that the people are rebelling. It’s understandable, but the country has national laws. If the people’s rebellion is so easy to let go, the people in the future..."
"Bang!"
Zhao Xing grabbed the tea cup before Hu Zhongyan finished speaking. Smashed it over.
The tea cup hit Hu Zhongyan's feet and broke into pieces.
The tea soup splashed onto Hu Zhongyan's official robe, making him very embarrassed.
"Hu Shangshu, do you still have any questions about what I said?" Zhao Xing looked at Hu Zhongyan coldly.
Hu Zhongyan opened his mouth, but in the end no sound came out.
At this time, Zhao Xing was like an angry lion. He also felt that if he continued to talk, Zhao Xing would definitely kill him.
Although he felt that Zhao Xing would not, Han Zhang and others, including the Supreme Emperor, would stop him.
But facing Zhao Xing's eyes, he didn't dare to continue talking.
(End of this chapter)