Chapter 336 The Hehuang War Begins
No matter what they think in their hearts, whether they like it or not, Zhao Xing is a conspiracy, and they must jump in.
For officials, reputation trumps everything.
For a time, the morning meeting turned into a fund-raising meeting.
However, these officials also have a sense of proportion and donate according to their respective grades.
It's not that no one wants to donate more, even if this is Zhao Xing's calculation, the stone tablet is real.
You can have your name engraved on the stone tablet at the entrance of the palace for a little money. Naturally, some people are willing to spend more money to make their names higher.
But once you do this, you will offend many people, so you have to give up.
Zhao Xing made a rough estimate, but the money donated by the civil and military officials above the court amounted to millions of taels.
When the morning dynasty is over and the news spreads, those officials who are not qualified to participate in the morning dynasty will also donate.
If there were thousands of officials, big and small, in Bianjing City, if they all donated, the amount would probably be no less than five million taels.
Including the donations from businessmen, the money is completely enough for disaster relief, and there may be some leftover.
While Zhao Xing lamented the wealth of these officials, he suddenly thought of Emperor Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty.
Emperor Chongzhen begged his grandfather and grandma, and begged those ministers to donate money to resist Li Jiancheng.
As a result, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty donated a total of two hundred thousand taels of silver.
But when Li Jiancheng broke into Peiping and searched the officials' properties, he found 70 million taels of silver.
You must know that these are just cash, antique calligraphy, paintings, farm shops, etc. are not included.
Some people even say that if Emperor Chongzhen could be ruthless and confiscate the homes of all those officials, the Ming Dynasty would not have perished at all.
Zhao Xing now has the urge to confiscate the homes of these officials.
However, as soon as the idea came up, Zhao Xing held it down.
This statement is too extreme. If Emperor Chongzhen really wants to do that, he is afraid that before Li Zicheng comes in, all the officials will join forces to rebel and kill him.
No matter what, Zhao Xing was very happy to be able to get a sum of money from these officials.
My father set an example and advocated frugality, but in the end he saved a lifetime. What’s the use?
Even if these officials are not extravagant, can they still give money to the court?
Now that they were forced to do it, they were obviously distressed to death, and they had to pay a sum of money, which was considered as venting their anger for their father.
Zhao Xing said some words for the occasion and announced that the morning court was over.
"Sanshui, according to the donation amount listed in the morning court, after dawn, celebrities will carve on the stone tablet on the left side of the palace. Don't carve on the merchants first." Zhao Xing ordered.
The reason why the merchants did not carve it was that Zhao Xing gave them time to donate again.
Rectifying the mutual market and shipping department is a big stick, while recording the merits of the stone is a sweet date.
For those businessmen, this sweet date is simply made of honey.
The status of businessmen has always been low. Even if the Song Dynasty did not suppress business and the status of businessmen was higher than that of workers and peasants, the concepts that have been cultivated for a long time still exist.
For businessmen, spending a little money can carve their names on the stone tablet at the entrance of the palace, and some businessmen are willing.
Only donated five thousand taels, which is too cheap for them.
If he hadn't wanted to conceal the matter of stone recording and use businessmen to force officials to donate, he would have asked Sheng Changsong to have a showdown with those businessmen directly.
When the time comes and the places are directly auctioned, I am afraid that I will get more money.
"Yes!" Sanshui didn't ask any further questions, responded and hurried away.
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What Zhao Xing thought was right, those businessmen were very unhappy when they were forced to donate five thousand taels of silver.
But as the morning dynasty ended, Zhao Xing specially arranged for people to publicize it. The businessmen in Bianjing knew the businessmen who had donated money, and the officials would have their names engraved on the stone tablet outside the palace gate.
After learning the news, many businessmen approached Sheng Changsong and tried to figure out how to engrave their names higher and more conspicuously.
Following Zhao Xing's instructions, Sheng Changsong directly told these people that the names of those who donated the most would be engraved in the front row, and the names of the top thirty people would be larger than others.
If you pay with food, even if the total value is slightly lower, you can still be ranked at the top. Zhao Xing had no choice but to do this. Now that these businessmen are rich, what they like to do most is buy land.
All of them are rich and are also relatively large landowners.
I have a lot of food in my hand.
Because of the threat of Zhao Xing, they did not dare to increase prices, but they were reluctant to sell grain.
The imperial court purchased grain on a large scale, but merchants were reluctant to sell it, causing grain prices to rise a lot.
This is not malicious bidding, but caused by the market.
Zhao Xing had no choice about this.
If someone has grain but doesn’t sell it, then he can’t be punished.
But the situation in Jiangzhou was more serious than Zhao Xing thought. There was a lack of a large amount of food. The imperial court continued to purchase food, and food prices in various places rose. It was the people everywhere who suffered.
This also forces wealthy businessmen to donate more food.
When the wealthy businessmen heard this, they did not hesitate at all. Many of them donated all the excess food stored at home in order to be ranked first.
For them, it would be a bit exaggerated to say that money is just a number, but there is no shortage of it at all.
Compared with money, what they want more is the improvement of social status.
The name is engraved on the stone tablet at the entrance of the palace, which is a matter of honoring the ancestors.
The stone monument is so big and there are so many people donating it. How can it be seen by people if it is not bigger?
Money, food, etc. are nothing compared to this.
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Zhao Xing was busy with disaster relief, and Xixia also launched troops on the plateau again.
It's already August now, and the plateau is getting cold very quickly. If we don't send troops, it will be delayed until spring next year.
Xixia's retreat was to allow civil war among the various tribes on the plateau to consume their power, and they did not want to see the internal unification of the plateau.
Although it has not met Xixia's expectations, Xixia does not dare to delay it any longer.
If it really takes until the spring of next year to complete the unification of all the plateau ministries, it will be even more troublesome for Xixia.
Xixia sent out troops on the front foot, and the land of Hehuang also became chaotic.
Previously, Gu Tingye mobilized a piece of weapons and armor from the army and sold it to the Tubo and Qiang people in the Hehuang land. Wang Shao sent people to spread the news, saying that Xixia's withdrawal was just a delaying measure, and he would definitely send troops again to annex the plateau.
Once Xixia annexes the plateau, the next step will be to attack the Hehuang land.
The Song Dynasty has been restrained by Xixia and Liao in recent years, and has no intention of capturing Hehuang.
On the other hand, Xixia had always been eyeing Hehuang. If it weren't for the Song Dynasty, it would have taken action long ago.
The Tubo and Qiang people in Hehuang land also know this.
Now that Xixia and the Song Dynasty have made peace, they are really afraid that the Song Dynasty will not care when Xixia sends troops to Hehuang, so everyone is in danger.
Seeing that Xixia has indeed sent troops to the plateau again, I have already believed those rumors.
They have only two choices now, either to unite to defend Xixia, or to take advantage of Xixia's invasion of the plateau to annex other tribes and unify Hehuang.
Compared with the alliance, they were naturally more attracted by the unification of Hehuang.
The most important thing is the weapons and armor provided by the Song Dynasty, which increased their self-confidence.
Gu Tingye had previously mobilized a batch of weapons and armor from the army and provided them to the two largest tribes, Tubo and Qiang.
The transaction is kept hidden from the other party.
Later, Sheng Wei brought weapons and armor, which was supposed to make up for the gap that Gu Tingye had made before.
But after Gu Tingye and Wang Shao received Zhao Xing's letter asking them to act cheaply, they discussed and decided not to make up for the part they had previously transferred, and to provide all of it to the Tubo and Qiang people.
After Xixia launched its troops, the Qiang and Tubo people in the Hehuang land got a large amount of weapons and armor, and their ambitions expanded, so they unanimously chose to send troops.
However, the Qiang moved faster and took the lead in launching a sneak attack, quickly wiping out the two small Tubo tribes.
(End of this chapter)