Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 1157 Donation
Because of the Han Jiang family, Cheng Mengxian has a relatively close relationship with the Cao family.

But Cao Yong knew that the Cao family was not Cheng Mengxian's backer.Being able to take over the general affairs of the Cheng family as a side branch, the person standing behind Cheng Mengxian is definitely someone that the Cheng family fears.

Although Cao Yong is the governor, the county magistrate is not as good as the current one, so he may not have such a great deterrent effect on the Cheng family in the south of the Yangtze River.

Cao Yong sneered and put the letter aside.

It was known a few years ago that Cheng Mengxian secretly invested in Prince Yong's Mansion when he was in the capital, and met Li Wei, and it is not surprising that he is now beginning to receive rewards.

Perhaps in the eyes of Yongzheng, he did not want to let the salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River go, so he supported the obedient patriarch; but for the clan, the subordinate branch overwhelmed the direct branch, which was eye-catching.

How easy is it to control a big family like the Cheng family that has gone through two dynasties and flourished for a hundred years?
Cheng Mengxian's life will definitely not be easy, but he didn't ask Han Jiang's head, so Cao Yong will not be troublesome.

After all, he is old friends with Cheng Mengkun and Cheng Mengxing of the Cheng family's direct lineage, so there is no need to get involved in the Cheng family's affairs...

Cao Yong guessed well, Cheng Mengxian's life is really difficult.

After Cheng Mengkun's death, the saltworks made mistakes every now and then, the stewards were passive and sabotaged, and the elders of the clan tried their best to find fault with him.

He knew that he had committed public anger, but there was no anger, only helplessness.

Although he was young and ambitious, but without Cheng Mengkun's arrangement before his death, he would not have been pushed to this position.

The Cheng family used to worship the prince of the capital privately in the early years. Cheng Mengkun was afraid that the emperor would chase after him, so he chose Cheng Mengxian, who was friendly with the royal family and had a relationship in the capital, to take over the family affairs.

But everyone has selfish intentions, even if Cheng Mengkun cared about his clansmen, he would not really want to hand over the clan rights that his children and grandchildren deserved.Therefore, Cheng Mengxian was only the "acting head of the family", and when Cheng Mengxian's son-in-law became an adult, he had to return the head of the family.

Cheng Mengxian knew Cheng Mengkun's plan, and also knew that he had privately met with several clan elders before he died, but he didn't feel any resentment.After all, he was able to have today because of Cheng Mengkun's tugging and taking care of him.

He also had arrogance, and he didn't care much about the Cheng family's family property, and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to continue to take charge of the Cheng family to start another foundation.

Who would have thought that it would be so difficult.Before the preparations started, these Cheng family properties began to hold him back.

Cheng Mengxian had no choice but to ask Li Wei for help.

Li Wei is not only the governor of Zhejiang, but also in charge of Liangjiang Salt Administration. He is the immediate boss of the Cheng family.

The day before Cheng Mengkun's "July [-]th" funeral, Li Wei went to Yangzhou on official business. When the Cheng family's funeral was held the next day, Li Wei came to Cheng's house in person to pay homage to Cheng Mengkun, the deceased head of the Cheng family.

Cheng's family is the first salt merchant in the south of the Yangtze River. Cheng Chengkun's funeral, the major salt merchant families in the south of the Yangtze River, the water transport terminal, and local officials and gentry in Yangzhou all gathered together.

As the representative of the Cao family, Cao Song also came to Yangzhou to send the funeral in person.

The arrival of Li Wei brought a lot of honor to the Cheng family, and also gave Cheng Mengxian a face boost.

The members of the Cheng family who were filled with righteous indignation and thought of various ways to oppose Cheng Mengxian only remembered the personal friendship between Cheng Mengxian and Li Wei, and the goodwill between Cheng Mengxian and the Cao family in the capital.

After the funeral, Cheng Mengxian went to Jinyuan to see Li Wei.

This was originally an old residence of an official and gentry. Because he was convicted in the early years of Kangxi and his family property was confiscated into the official, this place was temporarily used as a temporary government office for Liangjiang salt tax.People from the imperial court, or officials from the south of the Yangtze River who also served as salt tax officials, went to Yangzhou for business, this is the place to stay.

Li Wei is talking to Cao Song.

The two are currently in Hangzhou, and the other is in Jiangning, hundreds of miles apart, it is not easy to meet each other.

Because there were no outsiders, the two talked a little bit taboo, talking about Nian Gengyao who was escorted back to Beijing.

"What will the emperor do?" Cao Song asked.

Although he had served as a bodyguard in Yongzheng for two years, he still couldn't guess about that cold-faced emperor.

Li Wei thought for a while, and said: "I won't deal with it before the Longevity Festival, but after the Longevity Festival, it's hard to say..."

"Kill?" Cao Song asked in a low voice.

When Yongzheng came to power, even though he was furious against officials, it was rarely fatal.Even if he was sentenced to beheaded, he would most likely be able to avoid death easily.

Cao Song is not troublesome, but worried about his cousin.

After all, the Nian family is the cousin's in-laws. If Nian Gengyao's family is involved, it will affect the Cao family to some extent.

"If Nian Gengyao's crimes are discussed after the Longevity Festival, there may still be a glimmer of hope; if there is still no movement, then the emperor has no intention of forgiving..." Li Weidao.

Cao Song was a little puzzled, and said, "This case is still dragging on? Didn't you say that the censor has already ordered Nian Gengyao [-] or [-] major crimes? What's the delay?"

Li Wei is a minister of Yongzheng's hidden residence, and he has settled more royal affairs than Cao Song, a guard in the palace.

"Delay the noble concubine to die... If the Nian family is disposed of before the noble concubine is alive, even if there is room, it will embarrass the noble concubine..." Li Wei said.

While the two were talking, a servant came to report that Cheng Mengxian had arrived.

Cheng Mengxian came to thank him, no matter how powerful the Cheng family is in Jiangnan, a business is a business, people in the officialdom dare not offend the Cheng family, but they also look down on the Cheng family.

Li Wei and Cao Song are both local civil and military officials, and they made a special trip to Yangzhou to worship, but it was only for Cheng Mengxian.

Cheng Mengxian knew that even if the coercion of Li and Cao could not make the family elders completely calm down today, it would still make them think twice.

He solemnly thanked them both.

Li Weidao: "If you really want to thank you, then don't say such nonsense, next year there will be a few more stone salts, so that the court can collect more money, it is better than anything else."

Cao Song also said, "I'm just making up the numbers, and I don't really deserve anything."

Cheng Meng was especially grateful on the surface, but he was a little embarrassed in his heart.

For his affairs, let the two civil and military officials travel around, and they have to express their hearts.He has prepared two bank notes and wants to express his thanks.

But after getting along with each other for more than half a year, he can also see that these two are tight hands, without a suitable name, they will definitely not accept money.

He pondered for a while, looked at Li Wei and said, "I heard that there is a severe drought in Shandong this year. I don't know how many people are waiting to be fed? Although the salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River are humble, they dare not forget the court's lesson for a day. This is 2 taels of silver. It is the Cheng family. A little bit of strength for the imperial court." While speaking, he took out the banknote and put it in front of Li Wei with both hands.

Li Wei restrained his expression, looked at Cheng Mengxian and said, "Is this what you really want?"

You know, the Cheng family is the head of the salt merchants, Cheng Mengxian did this not only to donate money to the treasury, but also to give Li Wei a good reason to find the salt merchants to donate.

If the matter is handled well, Li Wei may be able to open the gap for salt merchants, which is conducive to the development of the salt business; even if the above-mentioned results cannot be achieved, he can still collect a lot of money, which can be regarded as a great contribution to alleviate the court's lack of money;

Cheng Mengxian, who can be the first donator, also has to bear the pressure of fellow salt merchants.

Cheng Mengxian nodded without hesitation and said, "Exactly."

Li Wei didn't accept the silver note, but said: "It's a good thing to donate silver to the imperial court, but you can't be so vague; after a while, when there is a charter, I will accept your silver note."

Cheng Mengxian couldn't help but smile wryly when he heard this.

Now that I have "donated" in private, when asked by others, I can still hesitate a few words.After all, it is normal for officials to ask for bribes from salt merchants, and it is abnormal if they don't.

If it was a donation in a fair and honest manner, not to mention the outside world, the elders in the clan would be in trouble.

But he doesn't regret it, since he wants to use Li Wei as a backer, he has to pay for everything...

Cheng Mengxian's donation of silver has nothing to do with Cao Yong in Zhili.

But he didn't know that this small proposal to please Li Wei was played by Li Wei before and after the imperial court, causing a turmoil in the capital.

That is, in the event of natural disasters and man-made disasters, in addition to court relief, whether to raise charitable funds from the people for relief.

The atmosphere in the imperial court has been suppressed for a long time, and it is rare to have a topic that can be debated. Everyone has to express their opinions.

Those who support Li Wei's proposal are eloquent in terms of national justice; those who oppose Li Wei's proposal are worried that natural disasters will cause man-made disasters, and the government will harm local people in the name of donations.

The debate in the court was lively, but Yongzheng could see that the officials involved in the debate were clearly divided. Those who supported Li Wei's proposal were mostly officials from poor families; those who opposed Li Wei's proposal were mostly from honorable families.

Although he mentioned this matter with several princes, they all said that Li Wei was whimsical; but in the end, he chose to support Li Wei.

So, two days before Longevity Festival, Cao Yong received a letter from Brother Thirteen.

That means, since the governor's office in Zhejiang advocated donations for the severe drought in Shandong, other provinces can also do the same.

Seeing this, Cao Yong couldn't help frowning.

This year's severe drought in Shandong is true, but the drought has also spread to the territory of Zhili. There are [-] prefectures and [-] counties in the east of Zhili, and their grain production has been reduced or even wiped out due to the drought.

In the first two months of Cao Yong, he reported to the household department the papers for asking for instructions to reduce money and food, and to provide relief to the disaster-stricken prefectures and counties. The thirteenth elder brother is in charge of the household department, so he should also remember this matter.

Immediately, Cao Yong understood.

Brother Thirteen means that the imperial court has no money, and the relief money for the sixteen counties in the two prefectures will be raised by Cao Yong himself.

This is different from the official donation of the imperial court. If the imperial court pays donations, it still has fame.Spending hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, donating a family background, life is also cheaper, maybe the rich gentry still take advantage of it.

The local fundraising has no reputation to sell, it is purely taking money from the pockets of rich gentry.

Cao Yong could think of a way, and he could also come forward for this matter, but it was not easy to bypass Tang Zhiyu, who was in charge of Zhili's finances, so he sent someone to the chief envoy to ask Tang Zhiyu to come and speak.

To Cao Yong's surprise, when Tang Zhiyu, who was born in a scholarly family, heard the donation proposal, his face was full of disapproval: "Absurd, how could the court approve this proposal? Isn't this just stealing from the rich and helping the poor? It's really not advisable." !"

Cao Yong nodded and said: "If the operation is not good, it is easy to cause public grievances, so we must find a way to make them willing..."

Tang Zhiyu did not give up, and has already begun to list the harms of advocating donations with Cao Yong.

It is nothing more than easy to breed disadvantages, increase the burden on the local people, make the imperial court have no worries, and easily slack off local agricultural administration, and so on...

(End of this chapter)