The Red Mansions

Chapter 256
Daming Palace, in the afternoon
Emperor Chongping just took a nap, washed his face with a golden basin, wiped his face with a towel, and Dai Quan said, "Your Majesty, Jia Ziyu handed over the sign to enter the palace."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongping said with a smile on his face, "Show him in."

Dai Quan nodded and turned around silently.

Shortly thereafter, he led Jia Heng into the hall.

Jia Heng cupped his hands and said, "I have seen the Holy Majesty."

"I heard from Dai Quan that you are ready to go out to suppress bandits this time?" Emperor Chongping asked with a smile.

Jia Heng said: "Your Majesty, we have already made some preparations, and we transferred the Jinyi Mansion to assist and provide military support."

Emperor Chongping looked at the memorials and said: "Jinyi Mansion is good at gathering military intelligence. I first saw its benefits in the Dongcheng incident earlier. Using troops first to emphasize military intelligence and use it as a strategy is essential to the art of war. You should first go to Liaodong to send secret agents. The same is true."

Jia Heng was stunned when he heard the words, and cupped his hands to plead guilty: "At the beginning, when I heard that Lan Qianhu, who was surveyed and found out about Liaodong, was transferred to work in Jiangxi Mansion, I thought it was a pity, so I sent him from Jiangxi Mansion. It's a crime to transfer back, and then because of the Dongcheng incident, I forgot to discuss with the two acquaintances of Jinyi Mansion.

Emperor Chongping said with a smile: "At that time, you promoted Jinyi, what's wrong with it? In addition, I have reprimanded Lu Jingyao of Jinyi Mansion for not being prepared for the detailed investigation of the Eastern captives these years. , you have to count more, and those who have not fought before are counted as invincible, you have to count as few, more counts as victory and less counts, but if you don’t know the other side, how can you talk about winning by counting?!”

At the end, the smile disappeared from Emperor Chongping's face, and his voice was already severe, he reprimanded Lu Jingyao and Qiu Liang.

Jia Heng said: "My sage, my sage."

Secretly, the emperor has been reading military books recently, and he used tactics and won temple battles.

As a matter of fact, there is a more secretive and powerful force hidden under the emperor's subordinates, that is, the factory guard of the internal police.

Emperor Chongping said: "You just take care of things, and Jinyi Mansion will go out with you this time. You used to say that you must first settle down when you fight against the outside world. I think it is reasonable. First, wipe out all the bandits in the Sanfu area. The Ministry of War I also write about the suppression of bandits in the local area. For the land of Sanfu, I will not urge you. I read history recently and found that how many kings used troops to worry about success. Don’t forget to go back to Beijing for the New Year.”

When Jia Heng heard the words, his body was shocked, and he said gratefully: "I would like to obey the imperial edict. I think that the bandits and bandits are raging now because of the heavy taxes. Eliminating exorbitant taxes and giving the people a rest is the fundamental solution."

Emperor Chongping sighed and said, "A tyrannical government is fiercer than a tiger."

Jia Heng's complexion showed admiration at the right time, and he cupped his hands and said, "My sage is holy."

An emperor can say that the tyranny is fiercer than the tiger, which has the appearance of a wise emperor. Although he is only quoting the words of a saint, the consciousness of the ruling class is also commendable.

At least he didn't go to perish in the "why not eat minced meat" and drunk life.

Seeing Jia Heng's expression of admiration, Emperor Chongping said: "The people's livelihood is difficult, and I don't know. Shandong has been exempted from taxes for two years, and Henan and other places have also been exempted from this year's autumn grain. But in recent years, floods and droughts have not been harvested. There is a steady stream of victims of disasters in Shandong who live in Beijing, presumably because corrupt officials and officials are exploiting the locality too much, and we need to vigorously rectify the administration of officials next year."

Jia Heng nodded, bowed his hands and said: "The Holy Lord's candle shines thousands of miles away, pointing directly at Guan Shu, I admire you."

Emperor Chongping showed no complacency on his face, but said: "Knowing the disadvantages is not difficult, the key lies in how to get rid of the disadvantages and rejuvenate the benefits. This requires you and my monarch and ministers to work together to solve the disadvantages."

Jia Heng clapped his hands and said yes.

Jia Heng pondered for a moment, then said: "I recently read the residence newspaper, and the Yangzhou Salt Court has published a memorial. It seems that they want to change the disadvantages of the salt law?"

Emperor Chongping said with a smile: "I'm going to talk to you about this matter. Lin Ruhai proposed that when the Ming Dynasty is restored, China and France should be opened, strict inspections of salt should be triggered, and grain should be transported at the border. On this matter, Elder Yang and Elder Han Ge all agree."

Since the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the law of opening China was established, which promoted the prosperity of Shangtun and the rise of Shanxi merchants. However, during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty, after Ye Qi, the Minister of the Ministry of Households, was changed to the Department of Nayinyun, this method was gradually abolished, and Huizhou merchants once again controlled salt. profit.

A few days ago, the King of Chu used the money allocated by the Ministry of Households to buy grain and send it to the border.

Jia Hengdao: "Your Majesty, I think that it doesn't matter how to reform the salt law, but the rectification of the salt affairs involves a lot of interests. The salt workers in custody at the salt field, the officials inspecting the salt road, and the salt merchants living in Yangzhou all go up and down because of salt. Food benefits, vines and vines are connected to each other, and their benefits are damaged, how can they let it go? My minister thinks that we should guard against their dogs jumping over the wall and taking risks."

Before doing things, we must fully predict the difficulties of things. For those who hinder things, we must predict them in advance, and be vigilant against them like the enemy, but if there is any change, we will eradicate them in one fell swoop!
It is not for the rectification of the salt affairs, but the fishing idea of ​​stealing money through the rectification of the salt affairs, and the rectification of the salt affairs has a high probability of success.

Emperor Chongping heard the words, his face was ashen, and he said in surprise: "You mean they will..."

"I think I have to guard against it. Maybe I can choose guards in brocade clothes and sneak into Yangzhou to protect Lin Yushi Zhouquan." Jia Heng said in a deep voice with a serious expression.

Emperor Chongping pondered for a while, with a solemn expression, looked at Dai Quan, and said coldly: "You choose people from the inner guards and send them to Yangzhou to watch."

Then he looked at Jia Heng, and said in a gentle voice: "Zi Yu, Lin Ruhai is your in-law, and your side also transferred people from Jin Yi's mansion, so that the two groups of people can be safe."

Jia Heng cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

No matter whether the salt affairs rectification is successful or not, at least Lin Ruhai's safety is no longer a problem.

Emperor Chongping said: "Ziyu, what do you think of the benefits of the salt reform method?"

Jia Heng pondered and said: "I think the key is to reduce the distribution links. The more distribution links, the more people will benefit from it. And these profits should have been obtained by the imperial court. If we can implement the monopoly method, adjust the salt price, reduce Benefiting the people is not necessarily a good governance, but we need to beware of officials' hands and slack in their responsibilities."

If the administrative efficiency is high enough, why do you need the hands of fake salt merchants?
Opening a salt industry company, government revenue, government system, government solution, and government sales, but faced with another problem, the government-run yamen, one is corruption after administrative rigidity, and the other is that it is difficult for managers to distribute profits, lack of progress, and low efficiency.

There is no need to avoid it, this is naked human nature, like leisure and hate work.

It is the words of officials in the DPRK and China that once the salt industry is monopolized and private salt is flooded, the common people may not even be able to eat salt.

But now, Chen Han has to follow Liu Han's lead in salt and iron franchises to solve financial difficulties.

As for the opening of China and France, Shanxi merchants are enjoying themselves smuggling into the grassland at the moment.

Sure enough, Emperor Chongping frowned, and said: "I'm afraid that the price of salt will rise at that time, and it will be difficult for the people to buy it. In the end, private salt will be flooded. Besides, there are many people in the temples and temples who say they don't compete with the people for profit."

Jia Heng pondered for a moment, then said in a loud voice: "I think that even if it does not go to the government to sell it, we should curb the big salt merchants, crack down on crime, and relieve financial difficulties."

Outsourcing salt sales to salt merchants and acting as a regional agency will save management costs, improve efficiency, and save worry and effort.

However, flexible intermediaries, channels, and the upstream and downstream of the entire chain have become fat again.

Perhaps it has greatly promoted the vitality of the society, encouraged more people to create wealth, and increased the total wealth of the society.

However, the side effect is that people's ability is different, and the gap between rich and poor is widening rapidly. The rich are connected with fields, and the poor have no place to stand.

Then go again, mix all?Four horses are divided into fat?

There is nothing new under the sun.

Of course, innovation is always moving forward in twists and turns, and there is no eternal law, it is always on the road, because time changes and the world changes.

If it falls on the salt merchants, it means getting rich first... Raising pigs and killing pigs is a fear. The rulers of the dynasty did not even have the awareness and responsibility to kill pigs, so they deserved to perish like the previous Ming Dynasty.

Butchering pigs does not necessarily use violent means. The tax adjustment order, the judicial prison lawsuit crack down, those salt merchants must have blood debts and original sins in the process of rising, and they must be checked for accuracy.

"If I rectify the salt business, I will probably start with the blood debt, or directly overturn the table, and Shunchang will perish.

The salt merchants who occupy the economic power, they will certainly not sit still, they will certainly seek a leap in political status, donate millet to buy officials, bribe officials, flatter the powerful, build academies, buy and train cynical literati, in order to create momentum for public opinion...

It may be said that the salt merchants have already heard the news and moved a lot of money into Shenjing.

Furthermore, the ruling elite is not monolithic, with different political appeals, internal constraints, and occasional personnel struggles. You want to mess with the salt, right?
The price of salt is soaring, the common people can't eat salt, there is a civil commotion, hurry up and make room for the "seat", I will clean up the "mess"!
"You can know the ups and downs by looking at history, and things in the world are generally like this."

Jia Heng's thoughts changed, he suppressed some thoughts, cupped his hands and said: "Thinking about it, the two elders should have a whole plan. I don't know much about salt affairs, so I don't want to talk nonsense."

Let those people do it first, and everyone will be happy if they do it well, and if they can't do it, he will clean it up.

Emperor Chongping nodded, and said: "The two elders are discussing this matter. There may be troubles in Shenjing recently. You can calm down and suppress the bandits."

Jia Heng clapped his hands and said yes.

Afterwards, Emperor Chongping gave a few words of advice, and Jia Heng also left, left Daming Palace, and headed for Ningguo Mansion.

Jingying, in the evening, in a barracks with green walls and red tiles in Guoyong Camp, there was a noise. Several people gathered around a wine table with rich dishes and a roasted deer in the middle.

The governor of the Guoyong Camp sat in the middle with Zhi Chezheng, the governor Qianshi Lu He and Xia Mu sat on the left and the right, and on both sides were the general Shan Ming and the guerrilla Yu Zhenglun.

"Lao Lu, Lao Che, now that Jia Heng mentioned some Guoyong camps to suppress the bandits, I thought it might not be a good idea. Could it be that the higher-ups deliberately let him supervise the Guoyong camps?" Xia Mu complained and said.

Che Zheng frowned, raised the wine cup, and said annoyedly: "He is not a prince, he is a third-class general who supervises an army, and his qualifications are not enough."

He joined the prince of Beijing, and originally wanted to seek the merits of suppressing bandits, thinking that he would be promoted, but now he was cut off by this young nobleman.

"The whole battalion will go out tomorrow, what should I do when the time comes?" Xia Mu asked suddenly.

Lu He sneered, and said, "What else can we do? We dare not follow the imperial decree! However, when using soldiers, we don't work hard. Last time in Dongcheng, we collected so much money from the Sanhe Gang. We didn't give us even one tael!"

Che Zheng picked up the wine cup, frowned and said, "It's a trivial matter whether it's money or not. I'm afraid there are more than 2 registered soldiers in the Guoyong Battalion. When the whole army goes out tomorrow, gather drums and recruit troops. Once the calculation is made, I'll give it to you from there." He conjures [-] people? This is a terrible thing, if that kid is serious, one of us counts as one, and we will all be held accountable!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone's expressions changed, especially Xia Mu and Lu He's expressions changed.

The vacancy for more than 9000 people is based on a monthly salary of one tael per person, and there are still 9000 taels. Most of them were separated by Lu He, who was in charge of the experience department, and Xia Mu, who was in charge of military discipline. Knowing Che Zheng, he also shared a share of the benefits, but he turned a blind eye to this.

"Eat empty quota, drink soldiers' blood, which one of the twelve regiments of the Beijing camp is not like this? Otherwise, how can we gain a foothold in Shenjing City without eating empty quota?" Yu Zhenglun, the guerrilla general, frowned. Said in a cold voice.

Shan Ming was silent for a while, and said: "There is a way that the law does not blame the public. That Jia Yunhui will not be ignorant of this truth. The key is that I should wait for the relief of the bandits this time. The military affairs are done well. It's all subsections."

Che Zheng said in a deep voice, "I'm afraid they won't explain this reason to us."

Xia Mu said angrily: "Yeah, people think we are outsiders. We went to Dongcheng to assist Wucheng soldiers and horses to suppress the Sanhe gang. We also made great efforts. This Jia Yunhui is not authentic. I heard that going to Cuihua Mountain, people People have won rewards, and the Sanhe Gang has more than 1000 million taels of goods. At the beginning, the brothers who moved the goods had their eyes straight. If the people from Jinyi Mansion were not watching, they would have to grab it."

Lu He smiled contemptuously, and said, "Lao Xia, he is related to that kid Cai Quan, so he takes care of his subordinates! Just now, when he received the transfer order, he rushed over. It's only been a while before he was promoted to Guerrilla, and now he's really shaking his prestige and giving orders to Lao Tzu!"

Che Zheng sighed, and said: "It's useless to say these things now, let's say this to deal with tomorrow's call."

Lu He picked up the wine cup, took a sip, and said with alcohol on both sides of his cheeks, "Why don't we borrow some people from other battalions?"

Che Zheng frowned, and said: "This idea is feasible in the past, but that Cai Quan is also a member of the Beijing camp, and he knows our details very well."

Xia Mu's eyes flashed, and he lowered his voice and said, "Why don't you make trouble with him tomorrow? The Beijing camp hasn't paid the salary for three months. If the brothers below make noise, he will definitely not be able to deal with it. Once he loses face, if he wants to Leading troops, there is no prestige at all."

As soon as this remark came out, there was a strange silence on the wine table, and everyone had different thoughts.

The guerrilla general Yu Zhenglun, breathing alcohol, with a ferocious face, echoed, "Master Xia's method is good, once there is a mutiny, no matter what the result is, he won't be able to lead this soldier!"

Shan Ming frowned and said: "You can't really mutiny, just let the brothers make a fuss, and if you don't pay the money, you won't be dispatched. This shows that he is incompetent in running the army. It will be difficult to do any more."

Lu He nodded and said with a smile, "That's the reason."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Lu He looked aggressively at Che Zheng, who was silent, and asked, "Old Che, what do you think of this strategy?"

Facing all the gazes, Che Zheng's expression remained unchanged, he smiled and said, "I think you can try it."

Xia Mu patted the table and said, "That's it! Lao Lu, let's find some people who don't want to go out of the city to work hard, and make noise tomorrow."

Both Lu He and Yu Zhenglun agreed.

However, the few people didn't want to drink, and they all acted separately.

Ningguo Mansion——

As night fell, in the study room, a lamp was like a bean.

Jia Heng was looking at the map and the booklet that Qu Lang submitted. According to it, there were 2000 soldiers in the Guoyong Camp, and 9000 people were not in the camp. The general school, as well as the thousand households and deputy thousand households surrounding them were eaten.

Not far away, Qu Lang, dressed in a flying fish suit, was sitting on a chair, waiting quietly.

"Qu Qianhu, just now, you said that those people will try to incite the general to make trouble tomorrow?" Jia Heng put down the book in his hand, and raised his head to ask.

Qu Lang said: "Several hidden scouts sent urgent news, they seem to be calling for a mutiny tomorrow, embarrassing your lord!"

Jia Heng's complexion was gloomy, and he said in a deep voice: "They are really very courageous."

"My lord, they may be worried that my lord will take the opportunity to attack when I am ordering troops." Qu Lang looked serious, and cupped his hands and said: "My lord, why don't we arrest them first tonight."

Just as Jia Heng was about to speak, a woman's voice came from outside the study, saying: "Master, there is a military officer outside who claims to be from the Guoyong Camp. He has come to see you, and he has already entered the flower hall to entertain you."

With that said, the woman came in and handed over a greeting card.

Jia Heng's face paused slightly, and he took the greeting card from his mother-in-law, looked down at the famous thorn on it, and his gaze became strange.

"Sir, is this?"

"Che Zheng is here, I don't know why." Jia Heng said, his expression was a bit strange, and he murmured: "Don't you come here to report the letter? You wait here, I will see you."

Hearing this, Qu Lang also had a strange expression on his face.

As Jia Heng said, he left the study and went to the Flower Hall.

I saw Che Zheng, the governor and acquaintance, sitting on a chair, and on the small table beside him, the tea hadn't moved, his face was solemn.

At this moment, following the sound of footsteps, a tall and tall young man with a sword hanging from his waist walked in.

"Your Majesty, I have seen Mr. Jia." The commander of the Guoyong Battalion stood up immediately, clasped his fists and said.

Jia Heng said: "Tomorrow the troops will go out to Shenjing, and Che Tong knows whether he is in the camp to supervise affairs, so how can he come to the official's mansion when he has time?"

Che Zheng said in a deep voice: "My lord, I have something urgent to report to my lord."

Jia Heng asked in surprise, "Oh?"

Che Zheng said: "My lord, there are some people in the camp who want to take the opportunity to make trouble when the troops are called out tomorrow, and prevent your lord from advancing to suppress the bandits."

Jia Heng's face was serious, and he asked aggressively, "What do you say about this?"

Che Zheng just told the details of Xia and Lu's plan to use the soldiers to "mutiny" the next day to cause trouble, but behind him he looked angrily, as if filled with righteous indignation, and said in a deep voice: "When the former governor was here, the general school was corrupt, the military discipline was lax, and eating Empty quotas and drinking soldiers' blood are almost uncontrollable. Lu and Xia Erqian's affairs are even more determined to cater to Niu Dudu. As big as this, for one's own self-interest, disregarding military opportunities, coercing soldiers to create chaos, and lower officials suffering from the emperor's favor, how can they get along with him?"

(End of this chapter)