Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 241 0236 [Squad grabbing power and iron ore mining]

Before the abolished officials made trouble, Jinzhou officials showed up one after another.

When Zhu Ming went to Jinzhou, he did everything he did.

Checking the balance of affairs halfway and letting the farmers go home to farm is tantamount to stating their position: one is to fight against the general judge, and the other is to plead for the people to do business.

Therefore, Huang Gui, Chen Yuan's fellow countryman and Si Li joined the army, immediately expressed his kindness to Zhu Ming.

Then retrial the unjust case, establish prestige, and force the investigation dispatcher Wu Mao to stand in line, and nearly twenty officials were brought to justice.

As a result, the subordinate officials of the state government were shocked.Fan Zhun, the governor of the right capital, took the opportunity to show his obedience, and Zhu Ming immediately promoted and placed the officials in the yamen.

After taking control of some government officials, he took advantage of the trend to seal up Shiyiwu, and completely fell out with Tongjuan in public.

Until this time, it is time for officials with active minds to stand in line.

Those who came to report their work in person, of course, wanted to take refuge in him, and they would follow Taishou Zhu from now on.

Letting the subordinate officials to report work means that the two do not help each other, and no one wants to offend, they just eat together and wait for death.

None of the subordinate officials were sent here, and it was obvious that he was the one who sentenced Li Daochong.

An Ju, the deputy envoy of the Jinzhou regiment training, came to the Huangtang of the prefectural government to meet with the prefect on the day the city Yiwu was sealed up, and discussed the matter of exterminating the bandits in the mountains.

It doesn't matter when the bandits are suppressed, but the attitude is the key point.

In the entire Golden State, apart from Zhu Ming, only An Ju was the court official.It seems that the rank is very high, but the actual power is not even as good as the judiciary to join the army. This man was demoted to the mountainous area. If Cai Jing is not defeated, he will not be able to return to the center.

That being the case, why not make good friends with Zhu Ming?
Two of the officials in charge of Cao's affairs in the state government came in person, and one was sent by a subordinate official.

The principal of the state school, Chen Yu, and the scholar, Cao Junhongxu, even came together to discuss with Ju Ming the state examination this fall.

Chen Yu first prefaced the friendship of the same year: "Donghua Gate called the name, and the prefect rode his horse across the street. At that time, all the people really welcomed it. Countless people in Tokyo city all admired the prefect's handsomeness!"

"Where, where." Ju Ming smiled modestly.

Chen Yu said to Hong Xu again: "When I heard that the eunuch was responding to Yu Shi at the wedding banquet, I was shocked. I was seated at the back at that time, so I could only silently admire the eunuch's demeanor."

Hong Xu said with emotion: "I wish I could see it with my own eyes."

The two sang together and flattered Ju Ming crazily.

In the few years when Cai Jinggang restored the Sanshe Law, Jinshi was first awarded the prefectural school principal, and he was very popular, and his promotion was very fast.

Now it's a rotten street. Once he is first appointed as the state principal, he will wait to sit on the bench for many years.

Chen Yu is from southern Anhui, and his thinking is very simple.Since Zhu Ming suppressed the general judge and he couldn't be promoted in the short term, why not turn to Zhu Ming completely and fight for his career opportunities in ten years' time?

Hong Xu is similar, the official rank is also a little transparent, and some official ranks do not even need to be a Jinshi.He is not qualified to curry favor with the treacherous party in the court, but it is just right to curry favor with the prefect.

After a flattering meal, Hong Xu explained his own thoughts: "There will be a state examination this autumn. According to the usual practice, the chief examiner should be judged, but the prefect can also be the chief examiner. The prefect has learned a lot, why don't you preside over the exam yourself?"

Chen Yu clasped his hands and said, "Hong Shiquan and I both support the prefect to take the state examination."

Zhu Ming didn't bother to put on airs, so he immediately smiled and said, "Since the two invite you kindly, it's inconvenient for me to refuse. What should I do if I win the right to be the examiner?"

Hong Xu said, "The prefect just wait patiently."

Chen Yu also said: "I have made arrangements with Hong Shiyi."

What arrangements can I make?
When they organized the exam, they didn't inform Li Daochong. All the exam work was reported to Zhu Ming.Li Daochong was excluded after coming and going. It would be too easy for Zhizhou to snatch the right to be the chief examiner as long as the Zhizhou can show his face.

Playing politics is like this. As long as you can open up the situation, more and more people will take the initiative to vote, and they will even help you grab power.

Hong Xu said: "There must be one thing, please support the prefect. Li Dapan holds the financial power. If he is not allowed to take the exam, I am afraid that the money for organizing the state exam will be withheld."

"How much?" Zhu Ming asked.

Hong Xu replied: "In the previous state examination, including the Lu Ming Banquet, it cost five or six hundred guan."

Zhu Ming asked: "Can two hundred guan be done?"

Hong Xu thought for a while: "Use it sparingly, it's barely enough."

"I'll give you 250 guan." Zhu Ming gave [-] guan as a favor fee, which didn't make the corresponding officials work in vain.

Now that he has money, he first deducts the gold from the balance, and then deducts the goods from the market. Of course, the fat he eats will not be spit out.As for whether it violated the rules, Li Dao rushed to impeach him.

Zhu Ming stayed with the two of them for dinner, and made an appointment for them to bring their family members, and Zheng Yuanyi would make friends with their wives.

After dinner and chatting for a while, Zhu Ming personally sent the two of them out of the back house.

"The family members of officials these days, which one do you get along with the most?" Zhu Ming asked casually.

Zheng Yuanyi thought carefully, and said: "Mrs. Yuan from Gongcao's family is the closest to me. But she is too catering to flattery. Thinking about it carefully, she seems to be deceitful, so I can't talk to her."

Zhu Ming couldn't help laughing: "The lady has grown up, she actually knows that others are flattering her."

Zheng Yuanyi said: "It's Mrs. Xiang who taught me well, and I remember it." She also said, "Ms. Xu from Qian Biejia's family, although she caters to her occasionally, is the most genuine. But she speaks without restraint, and she can say anything. He also said that he doesn't like Jinzhou, it's too poor, far inferior to Jiangnan, and he regrets marrying Qian Biejia."

"Haha," Zhu Ming can imagine what kind of character that woman is, "Qian Biejia's wife, Mrs. Xu, is probably from a wealthy family. She is a rich girl who came to Jinzhou with her husband to suffer, and she has no power or power to suffer. Roll your eyes. How can you feel happy in your heart?"

Zheng Yuanyi said: "Ms. Xu also gave me a pearl flower, gold inlaid with pearls, and the workmanship is also very good. I'm afraid it's worth dozens of pennies. I thought it was too expensive and refused to accept it, but she forced it. Give her back a twenty-pin gold hairpin. That gold hairpin is already my most expensive jewelry."

Zhu Ming asked again: "Where are Huang Gui and Wu Mao's family?"

Zheng Yuanyi said: "The lady of Huang Sili's family is not of high birth, but she knows the book and behaves well, and her words and deeds are very measured. But she doesn't talk much, and she always feels that there is a gap, maybe she is not very familiar with it. Wu Zhishi did not bring his wife with him. When I came to Jinzhou, I only brought a concubine with me. I don’t like that concubine, and her behavior was too rude. The maid beside her was reprimanded in front of many officials and family members because she accidentally spilled tea. He was harsh on the maid but fawned on us."

Zhu Ming took Zheng Yuanyi for a walk, feeling quite happy in his heart. She finally knew how to observe people, unlike before when she was in a daze about everything.

Now that the situation is very good, even the right to be the chief examiner of the judge will be snatched by him.

It was the drought in Jinzhou that gave Ju Ming a headache.

Since the beginning of spring, there have been only a few sporadic light rains in the boundaries of the five counties of Jinzhou, and a poor harvest in summer is a certainty.

As a prefect, you have to make plans early.

The state government paid some money, and then asked the merchants to act and go to the south to buy grain in advance.Part of it is used to stabilize the price of rice, and part of it is used for labor relief.

At that time, he must force Li Daochong to open the Changping warehouse. As for how much food is left in the warehouse, it is unclear.

"Sir, Su Zhixin is back." Bai Sheng came to report.

Zhu Ming led Zheng Yuanyi back to the pavilion: "Bring him here."

When passing through Hanzhong, I asked the magistrate of Xingyuan to ask for several smelters and blacksmiths.This Su Zhixin is a blacksmith. He has seen others looking for iron ore, and was arranged by Zhu Ming to be in charge of the ore search.

"Caomin has met your husband!" Su Zhixin saluted respectfully.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "Sit down and talk."

Su Zhixin carefully sat on the stone bench: "I took iron smelters and blacksmiths and walked in the mountains for more than a month. I went to the south and north mountains of the Han River. There are a lot of iron mines here, and I found several iron caps. .”

The "iron cap" is the residual part of the sulfide deposit in the surface oxidation zone, mainly composed of limonite, goethite, hydrohematite and other materials.

This thing can be seen at a glance, and it is very convenient to find ore.

Zhu Ming asked, "Where is the best place?"

Su Zhixin said: "In a valley more than ten miles away to the north, the iron mines are the richest there. I also asked the local people. Although big boats are not allowed there, small boats can pass there as long as there is no drought. The nearby trees are also dense. , and bamboo forest, it is also convenient to burn charcoal on the spot.”

Zhu Ming asked again: "Are there many people there?"

Su Zhixin said: "There is only one village, with dozens of households living in it, with an estimated population of two to three hundred. The village is very poor, and there are only some paddy fields by the river, and this year there was a spring drought."

Zhu Ming said to Bai Sheng: "Go with Liu Shiren and buy that mountain. First build a charcoal factory and recruit villagers to be charcoal burners. Don't force them. If there are not enough charcoal burners, you can start from Zhoucheng. Recruit the poor to go there."

"Yes!" Bai Sheng took the lead.

Zhu Ming murmured in his heart, why hasn't Shi Yuangong's magic stick recruited the blacksmith yet?

Zhu Ming said to Su Zhixin again: "You are responsible for selecting the site of the smelting plant and where to build the furnace. These must be determined."

"I wrote it down." Su Zhixin responded quickly.

Zhu Ming asked again: "You have traveled a lot, within Jinzhou, is there any big iron smelting field?"

Su Zhixin said: "Compared with Xingyuan Mansion, it is not too big. There are iron mines all over the mountain, and there are many small iron smelting factories. They are simply smelted into pig iron and sold to blacksmiths in the city and Caoshi. There are not even those who smelt wrought iron, and I heard that there is only one family in Xicheng County that can smelt wrought iron."

This situation is caused by many reasons.

First, transportation is inconvenient, and the state capital near Jinzhou produces a lot of iron ore.Ironware from Jinzhou, including transportation costs (especially taxation by private cards), is not competitive enough to be shipped to other places, so it can only be sold locally.

Second, the exploitation is too heavy, and all businessmen have to muddle through. There is no motivation to expand production and improve technology. Anyway, it is enough to make a little money.

Zhu Ming's mining of iron requires the approval of Jinzhou Changping Department, but Li Daochong also holds this position.

Alas, I'm afraid I'll have to pick it up secretly, and Li Daochong will definitely not give it a legal license.

After thinking about it, Ju Ming thought of Zeng Xiaoduan.

I helped Zeng Xiaoduan to overturn the unjust case, and he could recommend an honest man, who appeared to be the boss of the mine.Zhu Ming doesn't need to come forward himself, and let honest people quietly apply for a license and get the legal mining rights.

(End of this chapter)