Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 208 Punishment
Zhu Youjian had already sat back on the dragon chair, and the rage just now gradually calmed down.But when he thought of what Wang Zhian mentioned in his document, when he found the bones of more than a thousand victims of the famine in the outskirts of Xinyang City, his mood was still very bad.

In Zhu Youjian's view, whether it is Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and others, or Jianzhou Jurchen, they are cruel bandits by nature and treat any life as nothing, so they use cruel means and force to arbitrarily deprive the lives of innocent people.Strictly speaking, murder and arson are the occupations of bandits. Over the past ten years, the number of civilians who have died directly or indirectly at the hands of bandits has long been beyond count.Zhu Youjian once naively believed that as long as the thieves were wiped out and the court took effective measures, it would be absolutely impossible for large-scale civilian casualties to occur again.

But Zhu Youjian still overestimated the moral integrity of some well-dressed beasts.Some officials or literati, on the surface, are sanctimonious and full of benevolence and morality, but secretly they are full of male thieves and female prostitutes.

The scum of the government of Xinyang Prefecture, who usually claim to uphold the way of heaven and comfort the people, who would have thought that they would openly disregard the life and death of the people under their rule for their own self-interest. This kind of contempt for the lives of civilians is even more shocking hate.

"All ministers, get up! The drought is severe in several provinces in the Northland, and countless old and weak women and children need to rely on the government to save their lives! In the face of natural disasters, only the imperial court and local government have the ability to keep many victims alive! I only hope that the Xinyang incident is just an accident Otherwise, how can I believe in the conscience and conduct of officials? How can I have the confidence to realize the great order of the world?"

Zhu Youjian's tone was full of desolation.

After crossing over, he has been exhausting his mind to change some stereotypes and bad habits in the world, and strive to improve the lives of more people. Although he has achieved initial results in many aspects, it is not as good as the spiritual impact of the Xinyang incident. hit.Before those disaster victims were about to die, would they have extremely resentful curses on him, the king?

Now he is full of doubts about whether he can change Daming, and he has become unconfident in his heart.

He knew that most of the officials in Ming Dynasty were lazy and lazy, so he tried his best to change this situation from the system, but he never thought that there were officials like Xu Yunsheng who were disabled and fattened.It seems that a strict supervision system must be implemented as soon as possible, so as to prevent such tragedies from happening again to the greatest extent.

Everyone in the hall stood up one after another, Wen Tiren said: "The fact of Xinyang is a tragedy in the world, Xu and others deserve to die! Although Wang, a hundred households in brocade clothes, is suspected of overstepping his authority in handling this matter, he should act according to his authority urgently. The action is also out of a public heart, otherwise, I am afraid that heartbreaking things will continue to happen! The old minister thinks that he is innocent and meritorious! Please make a decision on this matter as soon as possible, so that the herdsmen all over the world can learn from it! The old minister also implores the holy one to cheer up Spirit, don't let this small setback sink you down, I will use up all my energy to assist the Holy King to restore my great Ming to its former glory!"

"The ministers seconded the chief assistant's words!"

"This old slave begs the Holy One not to worry too much, and focus on the dragon body!"

All the people in the hall sensed the emperor's depression, and they spoke sincerely or falsely to persuade and comfort Zhu Youjian, which relieved his depression a lot.

In my subconscious mind, I still have the idea of ​​treating others as equals in later generations, and I often forget that I am now the lord of the world, and that my pessimism will make all the officials panic.

It seems that he is not a qualified monarch, lacking the cold-blooded traits that regard the world as ants.

But even though he is aware of this, Zhu Youjian also knows that it is difficult to change.He only hopes that his mental willpower will become stronger, that he will maintain reason and restraint in the face of everything, and be able to make correct judgments and choices with a calm mind.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian finally calmed down completely.He said in a deep voice: "The nature of the incident in Xinyang Prefecture is extremely bad! Officials who committed the crime must be severely punished! Everyone below Mr. Xu, the governor of the prefecture, was beheaded and abandoned in the local downtown! All his family properties were confiscated! His family has lived for three thousand miles, and he will be humble forever. Citizenship, if you are pardoned, you will not be pardoned! The cabinet will announce this matter to the world!"

Wen Tiren came out to salute and receive the order.

Originally, Zhu Youjian wanted to decree that the offending officials be beheaded in half, but considering that beheading in half was too cruel, after thinking about it, he changed to beheading.

Zhu Youjian took the tea served by Wang Chengen and drank it all in one gulp. The sweet aftertaste of the new tea wiped away the last trace of irritability in his heart, and his high-spirited fighting spirit was rekindled.

He went on to say: "The left and right censors and deputy censors of the Procuratorate led teams to inspect the hardest-hit areas in Henan and Shandong, and if any local government officials are found to be sloppy and slack, regardless of their official positions, they will all be dismissed! Those who dare to intercede for him are guilty of the same crime! If anyone is found to be greedy for money and food for disaster relief, he will be beheaded immediately to show the public! Li Qing, Shi Qing, I hope that the two Qing families will not care about personal reputation and gains and losses, and put the interests of the court and the people first. Let most of the people affected by the disaster get through the current difficulties safely!"

Both Li Banghua and Shi Bangyao knelt down on the ground with solemn expressions and received the order after giving a big salute.

Zhu Youjian is well aware that digging wells and repairing canals requires time, money and food, as well as professional talents to guide the construction.Some areas with extremely poor water resources need to drill deep wells as deep as tens of feet or even tens of feet. Such projects need to consume a lot of human, financial and material resources, and the effect is not obvious.

However, the drought in several northern provinces will continue for several years. In this generation of underdeveloped technology, the shortcomings of the long construction period of water conservancy projects are fully exposed.

This means that for a long period of time, the imperial court has to provide astronomical amounts of food to feed these hungry people, so that the fields can be produced after the completion of wells and canals.This is a very unrealistic thing. Doing that will completely drag down Daming's finances, but the result is not worth the loss.

Although the Zheng family's fleet is now buying rice from Siam, Jiaozhi and other places and transporting it to the capital, it takes a long time for the fleet to come and go. You can't ask the Zheng family to stop their business. Do it, and use it as a transport fleet for you, right?That is tantamount to taking money directly from the Zheng family's pocket. How can a great country be so unpretentious?Besides, Zheng Zhilong might not agree.

After Li Banghua and Shi Bangyao were listed, Zhu Youjian continued to speak: "According to what I know, among the provinces and counties affected by the disaster, Shaanxi's measures are the most appropriate and the most thorough, so it is affected by the drought. At least, all of this is due to Sun Qing's good governance, local officials' hard work, and people-oriented ethics. In addition, under the years of turmoil in Shaanxi, the population has decreased sharply, so Shaanxi has begun to look like self-protection. According to this situation Look, in a few years time, Shaanxi will begin to see a stable situation. This has actually eliminated a major hidden worry for the imperial court, and Sun Qing has contributed a lot!"

For Sun Chuanting, who is extremely capable, loyal and fearless, Zhu Youjian would praise Sun Chuanting from time to time in front of the ministers, the purpose is to warn the ministers that this is the person I like, so don't give him eye drops for nothing.

Seeing that most of the ministers nodded in agreement, Zhu Youjian continued: "Before now, I have issued an order to order the disaster-stricken prefectures and counties in Shandong to send the victims to both sides of the canal and to Weishan, Zhaoyang, Nanyang, and Dushan in Jining Prefecture. Waiting for the lake area to move. Because the above-mentioned land is densely covered with rivers and lakes, and the land is fertile, it is very convenient to dig wells or divert water from the lakes and rivers for irrigation, and the cost of money and food is much less than that in dry land. It is not an extravagant hope. The Ministry of Industry has dispatched officials from the Water Department of the capital to plan and arrange the construction of villages and open up wasteland in areas that will not be flooded during the rainy season. As long as the measures are effective and the local government directs properly, the victims of disasters in Shandong will also be able to live in a few years. A good place for a good field."

Fan Jingwen, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, said: "According to the report by Ma, the doctor of the Dushui Division, the officials and officials sent by the Dushui Division personally inspected it, and after consulting the local county annals, we learned that the unacceptable wasteland around the South Four Lakes in Jining Prefecture alone There are as many as hundreds of thousands of hectares. After several years of planting rotation, most of them can become upper fields, and the output can feed millions of people. Local farmers also have fish and shrimps in slack seasons. It can be sold to others, or eaten by oneself, it can be regarded as a considerable fortune.”

Zhu Youjian nodded and said: "The Ministry of Industry's errands are very much in line with my wishes. Fan Qing wants to find out more available talents from the Ministry. As long as he has real talents and practical learning, the imperial court will definitely promote them. It can make Fan Qing win the reputation of Bole, Fan Qing must remember!"

Fan Jingwen received the decree happily.The Ministry of Industry is like a chamber pot. Whether it’s the emperor, the cabinet, the inner court, or important ministers and dignitaries, they take it for use when they have something to do, and throw it away when it’s used up. If something goes wrong, someone has to be held accountable. love lord.

In addition to several high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Industry, such as Shangshu and Zuoshilang, middle-level officials such as Langzhong, Yuanwailang, and principals in each department are basically highly professional figures, and many officials are also leaders in their industries.However, because the whole Ming Dynasty basically did not pay attention to the promotion and use of professional talents, the promotion of the officials of the Ministry of Industry was extremely slow, and those middle-level officials also had a lot of grievances in private.

This time the emperor opened his mouth, of course Fan Jingwen was happy to give him a favor.When I got back to the Ministry, I said that under my own reasoning, the Holy Master personally promised to increase the promotion of the officials of the Ministry of Industry. Come, my authority in the ministry will be greatly improved.

　There have been a lot of various things recently, and there may be fewer updates these days. Please be understanding and bear with me.

　　The water of the Grand Canal mainly comes from the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River, which have nothing to do with the drought in Shandong.Besides, there are millions of people who rely on water transportation for food, and the interruption of water transportation will have immeasurable and serious consequences, not to mention that water transportation is much more convenient than sea transportation.Water transport is bullet trains, and when you get off the train, you will be in the bustling city. Sea transport is the plane. Although it is faster, the airports are in the suburbs, which is very inconvenient.If it is changed to sea transportation, all kinds of materials sent to the capital will be unloaded at Tianjin Wei, and then carried on shoulders, pulled by carts and horses, and then sent to the capital. The consumption and waste in the process is an astonishing figure.The canal can go directly to Tongzhou, which is dozens of miles outside the capital, so the role of the canal cannot be replaced at all.

　　Thanks to the book friend SHAJIA for the reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)