The story of a noble girl

Chapter 288
King Ning knew all about this, but his time was really running out.

King Ning, who has always paid attention to early planning and people's livelihood issues, made a small twist after the death of the former princess. He led troops to the northwest, and after a sloppy defeat, he committed another twist.

General Shang and Yin Ye dissuaded him, but King Ning remained silent with a sad expression on his face.

Another half month later, An Feng arrived in the northwest with nearly 12 troops. At the same time, several people brought a group of flying umbrellas, Qianli and Rufeng also arrived.

Military supplies such as grain, grass, wound medicine, etc. have also arrived in the northwest. The grain is the grain tax from the autumn harvest last year, and it can still be covered, but there must be a continuous supply of grain and grass.

This is the bow with no turning back!

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In fact, on the day of King Ning's expedition, no one in the court supported the battle.Including General Zhen Guo, Lord Hu, Lord Taifu, Shen Shangshu and others.You must know that the treasury is already struggling to support the original garrison in the northwest.Going to war means solving heavier military supply problems.

Usually, most of the military supplies are collected locally by the military quartermaster, and the household, military, and engineering departments of the court are also responsible for collecting them from various places for use.

But the situation in the Northwest is special, and it is almost impossible to collect food locally.

The transportation route of military supplies from the capital to the northwest is long, trekking through dangerous mountains and wading through bad waters.

In this way, the court will be fully responsible for the task of collecting food, and the food and grass for the original garrison are almost exhausted. , and more importantly - it is difficult to collect food.

Officials from all over the country must fully cooperate and assist in military grain requisition, but it still cannot be completed every year.It also caused the price of food to soar, and the people were in dire straits.

The officials tried their best to stop the war, but the emperor made a decision without any reason.

This food requisition task will eventually fall into the hands of the three ministries of households, soldiers, and engineering. The three ministries have different colors and complain repeatedly.

The emperor was in a very bad mood recently, and seemed to have countless thoughts. He listened coldly and said, "The food collection tasks are not completed every year. If the three of you feel that you are not up to the task, you can replace it with someone else."

Master Hu smoothed things over and calmed down the emperor with some words.In the end, the concubine of the Patriarch of the Zhou family, who had just been in office for a short time, was recommended, Mr. Zhou, a household doctor, and his son, Mr. Wailang Xiaohu, a member of the household department, as candidates for the household department.Work together with the two ministries of military and industry to complete the important task of collecting military rations.

The emperor swiped his pen again, and the matter was settled.

All the officials sneered secretly: Yes, the Zhou family donated a large amount of military rations last year, so who can he give this fat job to?Fortunately, Taocun Anlehou has been providing the wound medicine for free one after another, and there is already a large amount in Beijing.Then it was ordered that Taocun Medicine Workshop should do its best to produce it. As for the wound medicine materials, that was a matter for An Lehou. With his family's financial resources, these medicine materials were no problem.

Master Zhou and Master Xiao Hu are both new officials, and their positions are not hot yet.Can you take on such a heavy responsibility?

Since then, Mr. Zhou has been courteous and careful to the other imperial envoys who collected food, and he has been flattering and caring in his words.The stinky face of the market was so obvious that even the Minister of the Ministry of Finance shook his head and sighed helplessly.

People from the two ministries of industry and military dismissed him.Especially the two Shangshu, instead of talking with their nostrils up to the sky, they are merciless and contemptuous.

But Mr. Hu just listened, and didn't have any opinions. The people from the engineering and military departments agreed on everything.Totally a no-brainer.Really lost the face of his father, Mr. Hu.

People from the military and engineering departments unceremoniously treated the two as decorations. After 20 days, there were many difficulties in collecting food, and there was not much result, and a lot of money was spent.Several imperial envoys jointly signed the discount and said that the people in various places were very tricky, and they raised the price in response to the wind. By the day of the discount, the price had already increased by [-]%.For this behavior, it may have to be imposed with an iron fist.

This fold is inscribed without the names of Mr. Zhou and Mr. Xiao Hu. These two people have already become a laughing stock.

At this time, in various places in Ming Dynasty, there were caravans heading northwest one after another from time to time.

When the book was in the hands of the emperor, more caravans headed northwest again.

The emperor was expressionless after seeing this discount, and remained silent for a long time, before finally approving the price increase by [-]%.

After half a month, the local collection finally had a lot of harvest.

At this time, Mr. Hu, who has never had a sense of existence, returned to Beijing ahead of schedule, and made a decision: the imperial envoys of the two ministries of military and industry who collected grain colluded with local grain merchants and the government in private, and forcibly expropriated military grain at a price that was [-]% lower than the market price. During the process, the violence continued, and many people were killed and injured. They are still detained in prisons everywhere...

In addition, several people were still doing tricks on the grain hopper, and the hopper for collection and weighing was larger than the usual grain hopper.In this way, the common people asked for ten buckets of grain, but they were called eight buckets and a half... and they used second-rate goods as good ones. This time, more than half of the military grain has been replaced with old moldy grain...

I also learned that for many years in the middle of the court, the imperial envoys of households, soldiers, and industry have often colluded with grain merchants and officials from all over the country, and used all kinds of secret operations, various grain buckets, and tricks on grain prices to deceive others and earn money. Huge difference.Less than half of the levied grain was handed over, and the rest was converted into cash and put into their pockets.The common people complained, the price of grain soared chaotically, and the grain merchants took the opportunity to make another big profit.However, the military rations were shoddy, and the matter of exchanging old rations for white rice was already open and transparent.

Multiple charges, most of the evidence presented one by one, as well as relevant witnesses, etc...

The emperor was furious!An order was issued to strictly inspect Dali Temple, and Taifu Zeng supervised the inspection.

Is it Mrs. Zeng again? !

Some of the officials gloated, some were shameless and filled with righteous indignation, and some kept thinking about the Taifu's actions in recent years.All in all, different thoughts.

What's even more secretly funny, the sixth prince is in the northwest, how could he go so far with the military rations.It's okay to make some inconspicuous differences in price and quantity. With such a big toss, are these people out of their minds?
Some people also laughed because: "When this matter is found out, the hundreds of thousands of troops in the Northwest will have starved to death."

The ministers of the Ministry of War and the ministers of the Ministry of Industry had cold sweat on their faces, and they didn't dare to say anything. It would be wrong not to say anything at this time, as much as they said, they were wrong.

Prime Minister Wang said righteously: "Your Majesty, it is natural to be strict, but now we should consider the issue of military rations."

The officials immediately regained their clarity, and whispered: "Yes, strict enforcement will be strict, but what about the military rations? Who will be sent to collect military rations? Who will dare to pick up this hot potato again? In such a short period of time, hundreds of thousands of troops have food and grass. .”

At this time, the emperor sneered and said: "The military rations are already on the way to the northwest, and the first batch of supplies should have arrived."

Everyone in the hall was dumbfounded.

At this time, the little Hu Dacai who had already returned to the capital stepped forward, taking his time and explaining clearly the whole story before and after the army rations were conscripted.

The new officials took office, and the two adults who had not yet taken their seats took advantage of the speed of small things and the convenience of each branch of Zhou Ji, plus money and donations to officials, to easily solve the problem of food requisition.

As the so-called wealth lies in the people, there are still a large number of folks who store food.Just to see if there is such manpower and energy.

They secretly let the little things go to Zhouji branch offices to deliver letters. Zhouji jewelry stores are located all over the country, and the shopkeepers know the local area very well. When purchasing rice grains, the price is half to ten percent higher than the market price.Such a price that surprises the common people is naturally proactive.This move has paid off a lot.

After the grain was harvested, elite soldiers sent by General Zhen Guo pretended to be medium-sized caravans and sent them to the northwest in batches.

This move was broken into parts and not eye-catching. The sixth prince is in the northwest. This sensitive general of Anguo has countless spies making trouble secretly.If you wait until the granary is full before transporting it, then there will be no grains left when the spies set fire to it.

The second is to act as a middleman through Zhou Ji, and privately communicate with some rich landlords who have no official background, and donate food to officials, and the official position is "outsider".As expected of a businessman, Zhou Ji has hyped Yuanwai, a sixth-rank official, in private to make people jealous.Because it is implied that buying officials through abnormal channels, otherwise there would be such a cheap thing.Those landlords and wealthy households with weak backgrounds only thought that Concubine Zhou wanted some pocket money, so they dared not spread the word.

How many people like this want to be officials in their dreams. In the past, this kind of people wanted to donate officials and get a lot of cash, and it was impossible for them to donate more official positions than the local county magistrate.Usually rank nine, or a false job.Although Yuanwai has no salary, he is a sixth rank, even the local county magistrate should treat each other with respect, it is the best to honor the ancestors.

Zhou Ji's reputation and reputation are outstanding, and Concubine Zhou's reputation is also outstanding. After doing this, the gains are astonishing.

Hearing this, all the officials in the court were in an uproar, and they all laughed: "The post of Yuanwai will be everywhere in a short time, so what is Yuanwailang in the court?"

Mr. Uiro, Xiaohu, a member of the household department, smiled indifferently: "It's whatever it is."

Regardless of whether his officials ridiculed or were shameless, the result of the grain requisition is here. The amount of grain requisition this time is actually enough for hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the northwest for nearly a year.Moreover, although the price of food collected by the common people was half to [-]% higher than that of the market, in the final calculation, the money was not spent.There is still a lot to spare.Because apart from the high price and the private manpower recruited, there is no cost.

Then why is the cost of collecting grain every year other than grain prices so high? !

The emperor sat on the dragon chair with a cold face, neither angry nor smiling, listening to the various discussions of the officials.

Prime Minister Wang couldn't help cursing angrily any longer: "Requisitioning food is an act of the state, but you and other imperial envoys use this illegal trick to collect food, and you are in vain as officials in official uniforms! Even if it is conscripted, it is also a laughing stock in the world! "

All the officials echoed: "That's right, this kind of behavior, even if it is to collect food, it also loses the way to be an official. It will discredit the court and make all the officials in the world laugh."

Lord Hu, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, spoke in a moderate voice: "Shouldn't we ask the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Ministry of Industry why the cost of food collection is so high every year, and where did it go? This is the reason for being an official. Dao? You know, General Shang and General An Guo are both fighting bloody enemies on the northwest front..."

The emperor also spoke slowly, with an extremely indifferent voice: "Which Ai Qing can obtain a lot of food and grass in such a short period of time, even if it is a marquis, it is also acceptable. Besides, it is a mere member?"

After this group of non-official officials were approved, officials who donated "outsiders" to the court were very enthusiastic, and they couldn't help but use silver or grain and grass.Many years later, "Yuanwai" has become a respectful title for the rich and gentlemen of the country.

And Yuan Wai Lang in the middle of the court is still Yuan Wai Lang.Just as the member of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Uiro Kohu, said—whatever is, remains what it is.

(End of this chapter)