Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

Updated: 2012-11-08

The reason why Kangxi sent the Mongolian soldiers to Huguang instead of Xu Huai, who was the main force of the Zheng army, was of course not because of the several fortresses that the Zheng army had built intermittently in the past year, but because he had already received news of the breach of Gaojiayan. .At this time, Xu Huai is everywhere in the country, and the vast ocean is naturally not a place for the Mongolian cavalry.

The sudden natural disaster was of course against the common enemy of both sides. However, the last bit of foundation of the Qing court had been used in the Mulan Paddock, and naturally it seemed helpless to relieve the surging refugee wave.Therefore, even though Kangxi pretended to be sympathetic and issued three relief edicts, the local officials who knew what they knew still resorted to the trick of diverting disasters to the east, and drove the refugees back through the Yellow Flood Area and into the Ming Dynasty by various means of coercion and lure. Zheng's land is begging for work.

Zheng Kezang didn't know the news of the severe disaster in the north until he arrived in Zhili Prefecture, Taicang.Hearing the news, he immediately canceled the next itinerary, and returned to Nanjing overnight on a naval express boat. Then, without taking a rest, he held a meeting in front of the Zhengshitang.

"If you go back to the king, the original servants in Zhanan Zhili and the warehouses in Changping have only 15 shi in storage. Even if you count Chongming's military grain depot, it is only worth 50 shi. Even the 50 shi cannot all be transferred across the river, and it has to meet the needs of the 50 soldiers and civilians in Nanjing." Zhang Riyao, who served as the cabinet minister in the capacity of Du branch minister, was the first finance minister, at the beginning of the meeting Then he cried bitterly. "Therefore, it is urgent to transport grain from Fujian, Dongning and other places, and purchase grain from Annan, Chenla, Japan and other places."

"Your Majesty, although buying grain from Annan and Chenla is cheap, there is no need to rush it." Ke Ping, the so-called deputy prime minister who was the counselor and cabinet minister, shook his head repeatedly. "Although it is convenient to transport grain from Japan, Japan itself lacks grain, and there are so many troubles in the two countries now, it may not be possible to count on buying grain from Japan."

"Don't talk about whether it will be successful or not. You must know that buying grain will always cost money." When it comes to money, Zhang Riyao, who proposed to buy grain, felt a pain in his face, but Zheng Yingping, the prime minister and cabinet minister, turned a blind eye asked. "I don't know how much silver taels the Du Branch can spare to do this."

"There are still 20 taels in the treasury." Zhang Riyao replied through gritted teeth. "It's always necessary to prepare for unexpected events, so the Du branch can only allocate 10 taels first." As soon as this number came out, everyone present was speechless, so Zhang Riyao had to explain. "There are constant wars ahead. The summer and autumn tributes are mostly used to support the front-line army food and military pay. The other expenditures are actually spent from customs duties and salt taxes. Although the trade has been switched on and off in the past two years, the tariffs have increased greatly, and the availability is also high. Not to mention other things, The weapons and ships of the army and navy, as well as the start-up expenses of the Shilu Iron Mine alone are a huge figure, so there is no extra money and food in the treasury."

Speaking of this, Zhang Riyao cast a resentful glance at Zheng Kezang, who was sitting high above him, and revealed, "Your Majesty just allocated another 50 for mausoleum workers, so now there are only 20."

"Isn't Linggong allocated in three years?" Zheng Kezang gave Zhang Riyao a cold look, and immediately sweated someone who wanted to fool him. Fortunately, Zheng Kezang also knew that Zhang Riyao's purpose was not for himself. For profit, but want to be a good watchdog of the national treasury, so I just hold it high and stop pursuing it. "The Du branch immediately allocated 60 guan to purchase grain from various countries." Although the silver content of a silver guan is only a little more than half a tael, the huge figure of 60 guan still broke through the bottom line that Zhang Riyao was trying to stick to, so he knew the difficulty Zheng Kezang deliberately let go. "It can be embezzled from the mausoleum first."

Zhang Riyao breathed a sigh of relief, but the problem was not solved. Although buying food from outside could solve part of the problem, it could not save the hungry people in the Jianghuai River and Huaihe River who were starving for food.But Zheng Kezang must save this group of refugees, because with this group of homeless refugees, Zheng Kezang has the manpower to develop the Huainan Coal Mine and Taiping Iron Mine.

Therefore, Zheng Kezang made a shocking decision: "Then let the gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang be happy to lose."

Happy to lose?Does Zheng Kezang want to rob it?

The puzzled cabinet ministers raised their heads one after another, and Ke Ping, who has always been brave enough to speak out, even advised: "Your Majesty, the Qing captives have not been expelled, and the people's hearts are still changing. At this time, we must not do things like drying up the marsh and fishing, so as not to."

Zheng Kezang interrupted Ke Ping: "Ke Qing, what do you think Gu wants to do? No, no, no, Gu doesn't mean to ask for their food for nothing."

Now Zheng Yingping became anxious: "Your Majesty wants to do that act of donating money and accepting millet. It's not right, it's not right. It was discussed in Dongning back then. It must not be implemented, otherwise there will be fears of shaking the foundation of the country."

Zheng Kezang was not angry at Zheng Yingping's impatient interruption, but instead smiled mysteriously: "When did Gu say that donations will be made, the Prime Minister may have misunderstood."

It's not a donation, and it's not an open robbery. So what is Zheng Kezang going to do? Just when the officials were puzzled, Zheng Kezang laughed lightly: "I'm going to give these millet-eaters a chance, and I think they will flock to it." of."

Chance?All the courtiers were even more confused. At this time, Zheng Kezang revealed the answer: "Gu intends to sell the salt fields in Jiangbei, Songjiang, and Zhejiang East to local merchants, but only those who donate a certain amount of rice will be allowed to participate. bidding."

The following suddenly became chaotic, and the treasurer Zhang Riyao was about to speak out to persuade, but Zheng Kezang continued to ignore it: "I mean, anyone who donates [-] shi of grain at a time will be allowed to participate in the bidding of the official sales." If you only donate [-] shi, several people can join forces to participate in the bidding. In this way, not only will there be emergency food, but it will also make up for the lack of expenses in the feudal clan."

"Your Majesty, no, absolutely no." Zhang Riyao finally waited until Zheng Kezang had finished speaking, so he couldn't wait to remonstrate. "Salt administration has been controlled by the imperial court since Emperor Wu (Han), and it is a major source of profit for the imperial court. In the pre-Ming Dynasty, it even accounted for a quarter of the imperial court's income. Now it is sold to merchants, and it seems that it has made a lot of money for a while. But the future is very bad for the finances."

Zhang Riyao almost pointed at Zheng Kezang's nose and scolded him for applying for food, but Zheng Kezang remained calm: "Zhang Qing is too worried. Although he sold the salt farm, Gu did not say that he would not accept salt in the future." tax."

Speaking of this, Zheng Kezang's tone suddenly became severe: "What is the situation of the salt tax in the Ming Dynasty, and what is the salt policy of the Qing court, don't you know it? Why is private salt banned repeatedly, and why the people eat official salt in their mouths?" Black and yellow are hard to swallow, and the disadvantages of the previous dynasty, will it continue? No, of course not, so we have to overturn it and start over."

Lin Liangrui, the Minister of the Supreme Court, expressed his concern from another angle: "Although what the king thinks is good, but merchants value profits, once the salt industry is in their hands, they will inevitably raise prices aggressively, so that the common people will not be able to eat salt."

Zheng Kezang said with a smile: "I have already thought of this point, so all merchants entering the bidding are only allowed to bid for one salt field. With such competition, the price of salt will not skyrocket."

Lin Liangrui was not persuaded by Zheng Kezang: "Salt merchants have their own trade associations, and I'm afraid they will collude with each other to control the price of salt."

"There are two solutions." Zheng Kezang said that he had thought it over, and he was really not bragging. "First, the government should set local salt prices and set the highest price, and salt merchants are not allowed to pay a premium; second, except Jiangbei, Songjiang, and Zhejiang East Salt Fields, Fujian, Dongning, Guangdong, and Guangxi Salt Fields are all sold and allowed to sell. Salt farms in various places are free to sell. By the way, people along the coast can also be allowed to build salt farms by themselves, as long as they pay salt tax, they can’t be prohibited from selling them.”

"This?" The cabinet ministers present at the meeting looked at each other. "Can this work?"

"If you can't do it, you have to do it." Zheng Kezang sighed. "The north is full of my compatriots' flesh and blood, and now they are waiting to be fed, so how can I have the heart to see their lives go to waste." Zheng Kezang ordered after putting on airs. "Zhang Qing, this matter is handed over to the Ministry of Salt and Iron. The regulations and laws are drafted by the regulations and laws, but the rumors must be released first."

Zhang Riyao responded helplessly: "I understand."

Seeing that his intentions were carried out, Zheng Kezang nodded in satisfaction, and the agenda continued: "Okay, then, please discuss again, the rice grains are in place, how to provide relief, Gu means still in the form of Relief for workers just happened to put the development of Huainan Coal Mine and Taiping Iron Mine on the agenda.”

Zheng Kezang's judgment was not wrong. He heard that the government opened up the salt industry and sold the official salt field, which immediately caused a frenzy in the Jianghuai River and Huaihe River. Some people paid a lot of money to hire boats to transport grain to two large warehouses in Taiping and Taicang in exchange for tickets for the auction.

With the donations from these tyrants and giants, the Ming and Zheng officials quickly raised more than 50 shi of grain. As a result, the people affected by the disaster in the Huai River were rescued, and the coal-iron complex in Zheng Kezang’s mind was also able to falter.

But Zheng Kezang did not expect that this year's disaster was just the beginning. In mid-August, a typhoon was reported in Zhejiang, and 20 people in Wenzhou and Taiwan were affected; More than one house was destroyed by strong wind and heavy rain, and at least 15 mu of grain fields were flooded and production was reduced; in the same August, northern Jiangxi reported no rain in March, and no grain harvest; Hunan reported heavy rain, which also caused disasters; only Guangdong, Guangxi and Hubei There were no natural disasters in the east corner, but Guangdong reported that people loyal to the Ming dynasty revolted in Lianping, Xinfeng and other places; Guangxi encountered two invasions by the Qing army from Yunnan, Guizhou.

On the one hand, Zheng Kezang, who was in a state of desperation, ordered emergency compensation from all over the country, and also strictly ordered the various ministries that should be withdrawn to Jianghuai, Jiangnan, and northern Jiangxi after the divisions in the south of the Yangtze River were transferred to Huguang and Hunan to go south to help suppress the Lianping rebellion.

Next, Zheng Kezang ordered the people from Dongning to enter Qiongzhou, and selected the landless people from the three provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Vietnam to fill Hunan.

As for Guangxi, Zheng Kezang ordered the First Division of the Longxiang Army to go to the land to support it.After receiving reinforcements from the Longxiang Army and Guangdong, He Gan stabilized the situation in Guangxi and counterattacked, driving the enemy from Guizhou back to the Guizhou border, and re-established a confrontation with the enemy from Yunnan on the Yunnan-Guangxi border