Chapter 247 The minister is guilty and the official is just confused
Metropolitan Procuratorate.
By this time, it was already overcrowded.
"I, Kou Xiang, a member of the Henan Qing Dynasty Civil Service Department, come here to surrender!"
"I also surrendered from the Taipu Temple of the Ministry of Rites..."
"And I..."
……
Censor Fan Zhun saw officials rushing to surrender, and he became more and more irritable. He shouted loudly: "Go to the back and line up. Those who want to surrender should line up!"
At this time, a middle-aged man in soap-colored silk clothes lined up and came over: "I surrender on behalf of my lord, my lord is Sun Sui, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment! This is twelve thousand taels of ill-gotten wealth. I came here specially." Hand it over to the court!”
"Shilang Sun also accepted the benefits from Prince Ning!"
In the crowd, some officials couldn't help but stir up a stir.
However, while these officials were still surprised, another person in line came over and said: "I also surrender on behalf of my lord, who is the General Secretary Zuo Tongzheng..."
As a result, the officials who also surrendered made a stir again: "I didn't expect that the General Secretary's Feng Tongzheng..."
But these officials were not finished being surprised. Kang Jiu, a protégé of Kang Hai, the cabinet scholar, also appeared in the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
When other officials saw the disciples from Ge's hometown appearing, they all gave way.
Kang Jiu also came to the censor Fan Zhun.
Fan Zhun, the imperial censor, also put on a smile: "Brother Kang, what kind of advice do you have from Mr. Ge? Why do you need to go to the Metropolitan Procuratorate in person? If you have any instructions, just ask the subordinates to go to your mansion to listen to the instructions in person." Well! ”
Kang Jiu didn't dare to ask for help at the Metropolitan Procuratorate just because he was a disciple of the prime minister (a bachelor in the Ming Dynasty cabinet was regarded as a prime minister by the people at the time). He just raised his hands and saluted:
"I dare not lie to you, sir. I surrendered under the order of my master. This means that my master has received the ill-gotten gains from Prince Ning. Please take stock of it!"
Censor Fan Zhun almost came to his senses. He was stunned for a while before he smiled awkwardly and said: "I have always heard that Ge Lao is a minister of scholarship and has high moral and prestige. Why did he accept the benefit from Prince Ning, or five thousand taels?"
Kang Jiu smiled bitterly and did not explain that it was because his family was relatively poor that he could only collect five thousand taels, otherwise he would not have only collected five thousand taels to make up the number.
……
At this time, Zhu Houzhao, who was standing in the front hall of the Metropolitan Procuratorate in casual clothes, couldn't help but shook his head when he saw this scene.
Yan Jing from the Dongchang Inspectorate Department couldn't help but ask Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, do you want Dongchang to bring them to the Inspectorate Department for questioning?"
"No need, they are not sorry for the organization, they are sorry for the way of sainthood taught to them by Saint Confucius. They are a group of profit-seeking people, and their reputation is so worthless for a while!"
After Zhu Houzhao said this, he asked Xu Jing, who was following him: "How many taels of silver can you estimate at this moment?"
"Return to your majesty, no less than 30 million taels."
Xu Jing has always been good at mental arithmetic. When Zhu Houzhao asked, he immediately answered.
Zhu Houzhao nodded, thinking that back then Li Zicheng ransacked the homes of almost all civil and military officials in Beijing, and confiscated a total of more than 70 million taels. Now these civil and military officials have surrendered a lot of ill-gotten gains. It seems that the Ming Dynasty The officials are indeed not poor.
"The money is more than enough. According to the decree I gave you, you will now hand over the business of the Royal Bank and the Royal Taxation Administration to others. You will personally be responsible for establishing an investment bank. This bank will be called the World Investment Bank. , Daming will invest in infrastructure around the world in the future, do you understand?”
Zhu Houzhao said to Xu Jing.
"World Investment Bank?"
Xu Jing couldn't help but read it out.
"Yes, it is the World Investment Bank. The current gold and silver reserves around the world may not necessarily be able to meet the interests of the Ming Dynasty Infrastructure Bureau;
Therefore, this is a long-term process of making money. The purpose of establishing the World Investment Bank is to provide loans to foreigners who cannot afford to pay. At that time, they will either repay the loan sharks they owe to Daming, or they will mortgage their seaports and minerals to Daming! ”
Zhu Houzhao only mentioned one purpose, and there was another purpose that he did not mention, that is, if local officials in the country want to achieve good political achievements, they must also engage in infrastructure construction, and for infrastructure construction, they can only borrow money from banks controlled by their central court. By then, local governments will Indebtedness to the central court may even cause local debt ratios to continue to increase due to the increase in infrastructure construction, which will make it easier for the central court to control local economies.
After all, the territory of the Ming Dynasty will definitely become wider and wider in the future, and using economic means to control local areas is undoubtedly the most effective way.
Although Zhu Houzhao didn't say it, Xu Jing also guessed the benefit and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, please rest assured that I will run Ming Dynasty's second bank well!"
Zhu Houzhao nodded and said nothing more.
……
At this time, many civil and military officials still came to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to surrender and pay money.
Seeing this, Cheng Cai, the more upright censor of Zuo Qiandu, couldn't help but shook his head and sighed: "Oh my god, when did King Ning bribe so many officials? Even if he is the richest vassal king in the world, how can he have so much wealth? Even if he bribes With so many officials, how could his rebellion fail?”
The news of the failure of King Ning's rebellion had spread to the capital, so Cheng Cai asked this question. Guo Dongshan, the left deputy censor beside him, couldn't help laughing when he saw this:
"How could it be that Prince Ning bribed so many officials? Your Majesty bribed so many officials! What a shame, most of the people in our scholarly community are sanctimonious gentlemen. Once they encounter something that is self-interested, they will reveal their true colors. It's a pity, but Sigh!”
Cheng Cai had to agree: "That's it. If this continues, these officials will voluntarily disgrace their reputations, and then it will appear that His Majesty is wise, and the civil and military forces of the entire dynasty will behave badly. In that case, the civil and military forces of the entire dynasty can only rely on His Majesty's leadership." !”…
"Alas!"
Hang Huai, the censor of Zuodu, looked helplessly at all this and thought to himself:
"It is true that there are no honest ministers in the civil and military affairs of the entire dynasty! What is even more deplorable is that if this continues, because of the same interests, all the civil and military officials in Beijing will form the same party with His Majesty. The loyal society will undoubtedly become stronger, and we, the gentry, will live a better life. How sad! Those gentry who followed King Ning or responded to King Ning’s rebellion are afraid that not only will they not be tolerated by His Majesty, they will also not be tolerated by these civil and military officials! When did Your Majesty stop using his own sword to kill people?”
As Hang Huai expected, after most of the civil and military officials in Beijing invested in the establishment of the Ming Infrastructure Bureau and the World Investment Bank in the name of surrendering their ill-gotten gains to the imperial court, it meant that these officials would have to deal with the Ming Emperor and even the Ming court and the Ming Dynasty. The interests of the country represented by the imperial court were tied together.
The last thing these officials want to see is naturally some ambitious people who want to mess up the world and affect the construction of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, there is no doubt that these officials, like Emperor Zhu Houzhao, will severely crack down on those gentry who followed King Ning in rebellion, in order to warn other gentry and vassal kings who want to cause chaos in the world.
Here, Tao Xie, the censor of the right capital, Tao Xie, wrote a copy to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, asking Hang Huai, the censor of the left capital, to go to the imperial court with him to severely punish King Ning and his rebellion!
At the same time.
Other officials also began to denounce King Ning and the officials and gentry who rebelled with King Ning in the official media of the Ming Dynasty. They cursed these people for forgetting their ancestors and betraying their loyalty, and asked the court to severely punish these people!
In fact, these officials and the scholars, students and common people who represented their will petitioned, hoping that the court would severely punish those who attempted to bring trouble to the world.
Zhu Houzhao naturally followed the will of the people and approved the Metropolitan Procuratorate to file a case against King Ning and the officials and gentry who rebelled with King Ning, and asked the Ministry of Punishment to severely punish these rebels.
……
then.
Sun Sui, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment, was promoted to Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment in Nanjing by Zhu Houzhao, and was given the privilege of trying the case of King Ning and all the people who rebelled against the party.
certainly.
Officials who participated in King Ning's rebellion were also rewarded and promoted.
Wang Shouren took the lead and was granted the title of Xin Bo, and was promoted to Beijing as Minister of War.
Wu Wending was promoted to governor of Southern Zhili, replacing Yan Song.
Yan Song was transferred to Beijing to replace Sun Sui and serve as the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment.
The 80,000 officers and soldiers trained by Wang Shouren in Jiangxi were also transferred to Beijing for reorganization, preparing to be reorganized into the Guards sequence.
The governor of Jiangxi was served by Wang Tingxiang, who followed Wang Shouren and participated in pacifying the rebellion of King Ning.
Sun Sui only did one thing after going south, which was to kill people and ransack homes.
Now he has officially betrayed the entire gentry group. After all, he has invested in the Ming Dynasty Infrastructure Bureau and has become a common interest of His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao, and has become Zhu Houzhao's eagle dog.
The local officials did not mind following the wishes of Sun Sui, the representative of the central court, and severely punished the officials and gentry who rebelled with King Ning, because they also took this opportunity to confiscate their homes to enrich the local treasury.
After all, they also know that in the future, the central court will let them build local infrastructure. If they want not to be controlled by the central court, they must first have enough money reserves, otherwise they will have to borrow from the central court's banks.
……
Let's turn back to Jiangxi, when the rebellion of King Ning was just put down.
Xu Zan, the prefect of Jiujiang and the minister of the rebel party, was rushing towards Nankang with his troops and horses, and he was fighting under the banner of Wang Shouren, the governor of Jiangxi. He really hoped that King Ning would be defeated slower. , so that his defection can be meaningful.
However, what was counterproductive was that when Xu Zan came to Nankang, he was ambushed by the officers and soldiers specially left by Wang Shouren, so Xu Zan was captured.
Xu Zan knelt down as soon as he saw Wang Shouren. He knew that he was ambushed because Wang Shouren had already known about his defection to Prince Ning. Therefore, he had no choice but to beg for mercy now:
"Master Futai, please spare your life! Xianguan, Xianguan was really confused for a moment! Xianguan wanted to take the opportunity to paralyze King Ning, so he had to pretend to surrender to King Ning. In fact, Xianguan's heart has always been in the court! Xianguan just I want to protect the people!”
Coincidentally, Xu Zan also used the same reason as the civil servants in the capital.
However, the civil servants and gentry who directly rebelled were naturally not tolerated by the entire Ming Dynasty society.
"Prefect Xu, you and I are ministers of the same palace and age. The only thing I can do to help you now is to give you a chance to commit suicide before His Majesty's decree is issued. You can choose to jump into the Gan River now. Suicide, I pretended not to see it, this way I will avoid Ling Chi’s suffering again!”
Wang Shouren said.
Seeing this, Xu Zan couldn't help but hesitate a little, and moved step by step to the side of the ship. But after a while, he bent his knees and knelt down again, murmuring and said: "Xiaguan, Xiaguan is afraid of the cold. This, this water is too cold." ! ”
To explain, most civil servants in the capital rushed to admit that they had received benefits from King Ning. It was not because there were so many officials who had received benefits from King Ning. Although it was true that some officials had received benefits from King Ning, the nature of the article now Changed, these officials were already following the emperor to invest in the name of surrendering and actively paying money, hoping to make money. I don’t know if I wrote it clearly. Zhu Houzhao used this method to expand the number of civil servants who supported him and to tie the interests of more officials to the court. In this way, as the emperor, he would be safer and easier to reform the Ming Dynasty.
(End of chapter)