Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Zhang Pu in the crowd felt quite ridiculous listening to these people's discussions.

Because these menus are clearly written in the "Da Ming Huidian". As a scholar, he is naturally very familiar with it.

So in his heart, he laughed at these people's ignorance.

However, the amount of grain collected by Guanglu Temple and the cost of the banquet listed in the newspaper really shocked him.

Through these data, Zhang Pu clearly realized that many of the white grains handed over by Su Song's five palaces were misappropriated by Guanglu Temple!

How could he, who was born in Suzhou, endure this?

So he looked at the call for articles in the newspaper and immediately decided to write an article to tell the dangers of white grains and propose eliminating white grains.

In order to achieve this goal, Zhang Pu did not leave immediately. He wanted to know what people in the capital thought so that he could be more targeted when writing articles and attract their support.

He soon discovered that most people in the capital did not care about the amount of white grain, because the tax was not borne by them, and some people's relatives and friends were even able to eat white grain.

What these people talk about the most is the joke about Guanglu Temple. He seemed quite happy to hear about the yamen's embarrassing incident.

A drinker said:
"When it comes to the wine and food at Guanglu Temple, they are really not for people to eat."

"A relative of mine attended a yamen banquet and said that the food at the banquet was cold, the wine was too watery and tasteless, and each plate contained only two taels of meat, with bones accounting for half of it."

"The only thing I can barely swallow is the tea soup from Guanglu Temple——"

"It is hot after all. Drinking it can warm you up!"

When everyone heard this, they burst into laughter. I find it extremely funny that Guanglu Temple is best at tea soup.

After Zhang Pu heard this, he became even more angry. Because if Guanglu Temple cooks well and consumes white grains, that's all. They fool people like this and collect so much white grains every year, how can he endure it.

People in the capital couldn’t stand it either. A man who worked in a grain store said:
"Guanglu Temple cooks so little food and only needs sorghum, millet, sugar, and dried fruits for tea soup. Why does it buy other things?"

"A few days ago, there were officials from Guanglu Temple who came to our grain store to buy from merchants."

Everyone was surprised, and the hotel owner hurriedly said:
"You can't talk nonsense!"

"Purchasing by merchants was abolished by His Majesty a long time ago. Now it is all about procurement."

"This is the virtuous government of the Holy One, how can there be any businessmen!"

The abolition of merchant purchasing was the policy formulated by Zhu Youjian that had the greatest impact on the private sector. Especially the merchants and wealthy households in the capital were very grateful for the abolition of the merchants. The owner of this hotel is the beneficiary.

Now when he heard someone saying that Guanglu Temple was still in Qian Shang, he immediately warned him not to let this person talk nonsense.

Of course this drunkard knows that abolishing merchants is the current emperor's virtuous policy, and he does not dare to talk nonsense about it. But he was really angry, took a sip of wine and said:
"I also know that it is the emperor's virtuous administration, but the officials of Guanglu Temple are so wicked!"

"They said it was a purchase, but in fact it was still a purchase. They went directly to the store and gave me a deposit to buy something. They never paid the balance and there was no news at all."

"A few days ago, the store owner was so angry that he took me to ask for money, but Guanglu Temple said that he had already given it to me."

"Are you talking about whether this matter is irritating or not?"

These words of complaint immediately aroused the echo of many people. Many store owners have also encountered this kind of thing.

Nowadays, there are no official merchants anymore, and the purchasing prices are all above the cost price. However, it is common to pay less when purchasing, or even only pay a deposit but not the balance.

Many businesses dare to be angry but dare not speak out about this.

Because Guanglu Temple held a banquet, there were many businessmen in the past few days. Those who met were complaining at this time.

Especially compared with the procurement of the inner court, these people all believed that the emperor's intentions were good and the inner court executed them well. It was those officials in the yamen who obeyed and violated the emperor's orders.

At this time, what many stores envied were the suppliers of the Imperial Palace. Although the palace has many requirements when purchasing, it is very generous when paying. All accounts will be settled through Sunchon Bank, and there will be no defaults at all.

Especially after having the Huangshang brand name, they will be protected by the Guards Office. Not only do the local gangsters dare not intrude, but the yamen officials rarely disturb them——

They have never encountered the matter of purchasing from merchants.

Therefore, some businesses couldn't help but regret when they thought about the procurement bidding held by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I hate that I was not active at that time and did not strive for the imperial merchant qualification.

Thinking that the Internal Affairs Bureau would hold tenders every quarter, they had already planned to carefully consider the above requirements and strive to become a supplier in the next tender.

For a time, the topic of tea soup at Guanglu Temple quickly turned to complaints about the court officials and envy of the imperial merchants. He believes that if you want to do good business in the capital, you must become an imperial merchant.

They were even more envious of what happened to the newspaper copying company. After those property owners were bought shares by the internal government, as long as there were no problems with their operations, they could be said to be fellow citizens of the country.

Not to mention the capital's newspaper industry, anyone with a discerning eye can see that there is a big explosion. Newspapers of all kinds are springing up one after another.

Many of the merchants present were envious of this and even wanted to open a hotel room service. However, after inquiring, they gave up the idea.

Because the current newspaper industry has implemented an access system. If you want to open a new newspaper office, it must be approved not only by the association, but also by the Publication Department of the Ministry of Rites, a registered trademark by the Commerce Department of the Ministry of Industry, and approval by the Jinyiwei Public Opinion Department...

If you are not a person with good hands and eyes, you cannot do this at all.

But those with good hands and eyes can just spend money to buy shares in the real estate report. There is no need to apply for a new one.

Therefore, at the moment when the newspaper industry is exploding, there are very few newly opened newspaper offices.

Only a few reported rooms changed hands, and the owners changed behind their backs.

Zhang Pu listened to these things in the industry with great interest, and became more concerned about the newspaper industry in the capital.

From the incident of tea soup at Guanglu Temple and the discussion among people in the capital about the contents of the newspaper, he has clearly felt:
It is not the students who control public opinion in the capital, but these newspapers.

If he wanted to gain the same influence in the capital as Jiangnan, he had to gain influence in newspapers.

Now, he plans to write a few articles and become a well-known writer.

After returning to Imperial College, Zhang Pu began to write articles. While he was writing furiously, there was a burst of noise. Someone pushed the door open and came in, laughing:

"Brother Tianru, why didn't you tell me when you came to the capital?"

"Let me find it easy for a while!"

But it was Zhang Cai who had finished the palace examination. He hurriedly came over after hearing that Zhang Pu had gone to Beijing to become a student of Ngong.

When Zhang Pu saw Zhang Cai, he was immediately overjoyed, raised his hands and said to him:

"Brother Shou is taking part in the palace examination, and I don't dare to disturb him."

"I plan to go to see my brother in a few days."

"Now I want to congratulate my brother in advance, he will become a Jinshi!"

Zhang Cai listened to his words, pretending to be unhappy, and said:
"You and I are close friends in life and death, why do you say goodbye?"

"You won't be polite and angry just because I won the Jinshi!"

Zhang Pu didn't dare to say that, but he did have this worry in his heart. Because after becoming a Jinshi, you don’t keep in touch with your old friends, which is something that often happens——

"It's easy to make friends, and it's easy to get rich to have a wife." This is a famous saying in "Zi Zhi Tong Jian".

Fortunately, Zhang Cai is not such a person, and his attitude towards him is no different from before. He even brought many scholars from Jiangnan to visit him. After everyone exchanged greetings, they went to the restaurant for dinner. During the dinner, Zhang Pu mentioned what he had heard before and sighed:
"I used to think that all the white food was used by the palace, but now I know that a lot of it was wasted by Guanglu Temple."

"These officials of Guanglu Temple are really unworthy and have caused so much suffering to the people of Jiangnan!"

Everyone present was from Jiangnan, and they were filled with indignation. Many people have said that they will talk about this matter in Shuyan after becoming a Jinshi. Ask the emperor to abolish Bailiang and thoroughly investigate the officials of Guanglu Temple.

Many people responded to Zhang Pu's idea of ​​writing articles and submitting contributions. From time to time, some people lamented that if the results of the palace examination were not about to be released, they would have to write articles.

After listening to this, Zhang Pu suddenly said:

“Can’t I submit anonymously?”

"There were quite a lot of anonymous documents in the capital in the past."

“And I read in the newspapers that many of them didn’t use their real names!”

When Zhang Cai heard this, he suddenly broke into a cold sweat and hurriedly said to Zhang Pu:

“You can’t submit anonymously!”

"The content of the article is irrelevant. If it involves suing someone, the report will most likely be submitted to Jin Yiwei for investigation."

"If you look at the newspapers, the people who don't use their real names are actually using pseudonyms. What their real names are, it's clear when they report the room."

"In the Ming Dynasty Code, there is a crime of submitting anonymous documents to accuse others. Nowadays, all anonymous manuscripts are rejected."

Having personally experienced the development and growth of the newspaper industry, Zhang Cai and other candidates who participated in the joint examination knew many of the rules of the newspaper industry and even submitted articles to newspapers. They explained it carefully to Zhang Pu and explained the taboos involved.

Anonymous documents are one of the biggest taboos.

If someone submits an anonymous article and slanders others on the document, Jinyiwei is likely to compare the handwriting and find the anonymous person.

Therefore, writing articles cannot be anonymous in any way, and you may even be arrested when delivering them at newsstands——

Those people at the newsstand are all related to Jin Yiwei.

When Zhang Pu heard this, a word naturally came to his mind: suppress public opinion.

The emperor used this method to restrict anonymous documents, but it was much more effective than the previous repeated orders.

Even if someone writes anonymous documents and distributes them, they will have less impact than if they were distributed in large quantities.

Thinking again about the difficulty of opening a new newspaper office, Zhang Pu has clearly realized that the emperor is controlling public opinion:

"The public opinion situation in the capital is completely different from that in Jiangnan!" 』

"My reputation in Jiangnan cannot be used here." 』

As a rising star in Jiangnan Shilin, Zhang Pu could be said to have responded to a hundred calls among the intellectuals in Jiangnan. Public opinion among Jiangnan students was almost controlled by him. Scholars and public opinion were therefore controlled by him.

But after arriving in the capital, he found that the method he used in Jiangnan couldn't be used.

The current public opinion in Beijing is most affected by newspapers. No matter how famous he is in Shilin, he still needs to publish articles in newspapers to influence public opinion.

Moreover, with his current status as an imperial student, it would be difficult for him to convince the people who gathered in the capital.

For example, now that people are gathering for drinking, Zhang Pu can feel that Zhang Cai's attitude towards him has not changed, but others are vaguely proud of him -

After all, these people are not only candidates, but have also become Gongshi, or quasi-Jinshi. As long as the results of the palace examination are released, you can have the status of Jinshi.

Compared with the students, they will certainly feel proud.

So Zhang Pu thought about it and felt that his article should be written well. It must be a blockbuster and famous in the capital.

After returning home, Zhang Pu worked on the manuscript overnight, deleted it several times, and finally submitted the article the next morning.

With his current literary talents, there is no doubt that this article will be accepted by the Beijing News and published on the front page of the April 5th newspaper.

Published together with it were articles written by writers from various newspapers. Based on the account books inspected by Jinyiwei, they dug out the suspicious points of Guanglu Temple one by one.

Some people also interviewed officials who had served in Guanglu Temple to expose the darkness of Guanglu Temple.

When these articles were published together, they caused a huge stir. Many officials have guessed that Guanglu Temple is doomed and will be completely reorganized:

"Account books can still be said to be an old problem, but merchants are in trouble!"

"This is His Majesty's most virtuous policy among the people. How could he let Guanglu Temple be allowed to deteriorate!"

Many people have already thought about how angry the emperor would be after seeing that Guanglu Temple was still forcing merchants.

Zhu Youjian was indeed very angry, because he never expected that there would be people selling things to merchants under his nose, and implementing the purchasing methods he had formulated into purchasing for merchants.

If procurement has a bad reputation like purchasing, then why did he change the name?
In the future, the palace's purchases will also be affected.

So he immediately summoned Xue Fengxiang, Minister of Industry, and asked:
"I said years ago that the Ministry of Industry would establish a Commerce Department to unify procurement in the future."

"Why is Guanglu Temple still purchasing by itself and turning it into a merchant purchase?"

Xue Fengxiang broke into a cold sweat and argued:
“The Department of Commerce has a lot of affairs and is very busy at the moment.”

"Furthermore, Guanglu Temple uses a variety of ingredients, and the Commerce Department has to purchase everything. It will easily deteriorate over time."

"So when they wanted to purchase it themselves, Weichen had no choice but to agree."

"Who would have thought that they would turn purchasing into a merchant and force them to buy from the store!"

Zhu Youjian was furious when he heard this and said:

"Guanglu Temple wants to purchase its own goods, so you just let it go?"

"How did I explain the unified procurement?"

Xue Fengxiang remained silent, Zhu Youjian stared at him and asked, Xue Fengxiang could only say:

"His Majesty said that what each government office needs should be reported to the Commerce Department of the Ministry of Industry, and the funds will be transferred to the Commerce Department's account, and the Commerce Department will purchase them uniformly."

"If Shaofu Temple can produce it, buy it from Shaofu Temple first. If Shaofu Temple can't produce it, we will bid for it from outside."

Zhu Youjian shouted and asked him:

"So have you implemented this rule?"

"Who gave you the courage to delegate power to other yamen without authorization?"

Xue Fengxiang had nothing to say and could only kneel down to apologize.

Zhu Youjian was really speechless about this. He never expected that Xue Fengxiang couldn't even handle the things he told him. Without asking for instructions or reporting, the power of unified procurement is delegated to other yamen.

He could think that Xue Fengxiang did this to establish good relations with other yamen. But in that case, how can the purchasing power be recovered?

So he had decided in his heart that he would leave the affairs of the Commerce Department to reliable people. (End of chapter)