At this point, Zhao Wenhua's story should be over... He would die in a lonely mountain village, poor and lonely, without anyone caring about it. But an incredible thing made his death recorded in all historical records and talked about by millions of people, and even ranked among the top ten mystery cases of the Jiajing Dynasty.
It was October 23, 1930, the 35th year of Jiajing, and the autumn wind and rain were light. Zhao Wenhua, who was sent back to his hometown, walked to Shandong. Because the road was muddy, he could not reach the post station, so he had to spend the night in a rural wild shop called Crosspo.
It has been nearly a thousand miles away from the capital, and it has been almost a month since the incident that caused him to be disgraced. Zhao Wenhua finally recovered from the huge blow, became a little energetic, and wanted to eat.
He asked the store to do his best to organize a table of wine and food. In the cold wind and rain, his wife had passed away, leaving only eight concubines, sitting around the table in miserable miserable manner.
"Why are you crying..." Zhao Wenhua spoke a little, but he still taught them a lesson: "I'm not dead yet."
I heard the concubines say, "Woooo, my jewelry..." "Woooooo, if you have no money, how can we live in the future..." After a long time of trouble, people were crying for "poor", not him!
This made Zhao Wenhua feel embarrassed, and he sneered and said repeatedly: "Don't you girls who don't read books know the allusion of "the three holes of cunning rabbits"?" He also had salt rays worth 300,000 taels of silver hidden on him, which was enough for him to spend his whole life.
Just as he was about to show off to regain his reputation, the concubine who was most detrimental to her mouth immediately said, "We women say that being without talent is virtue, and not reading books is right. But Master, if you read more books, why would we fall into this position?"
"Why do you say this?" Zhao Wenhua choked.
"After a while, people say that you are not the first to build a mansion next to the palace." The concubine said with a whisper: "It is said that a hundred years ago, a man named Shi Heng built a house outside the palace. As a result, the emperor took a look and then it was finished... They all said that this is a lot of books, and you are a Jinshi, why didn't you read it?"
"Why didn't I watch it?" Lord Zhao couldn't help but sigh. It was really a tiger falling into the sun and a dog being bullied by a dog, and Longyou was caught in a shrimp show. Now even his wife dared to bully me, so he could only say angrily: "I watched it."
"See?" the little wife stuck out her tongue and said, "That would be even more incredible..."
"He" was so angry that Lord Zhao took the chopsticks, got up and left.
"You can say less." The aunt glared at the aunt's quick mouth and said to Zhao Wenhua: "Master, you haven't eaten yet."
"I won't eat anymore." Zhao Wenhua said angrily: "I'm so full of anger, I'm still eating! Burp..." He burped so much that he burped, and rubbed his stomach and went back to the house.
The concubines couldn't call him back, so they had to let him go.
After they finished their meal, they felt that the master's anger had subsided, so they carried the vegetables left for him on a tray and delivered them to the main room.
But when the master was rubbing his stomach like crazy, he rolled all over the ground. The concubines were immediately panicked and wanted to help him up, but because his movements were too fierce, no one could get close to him. They could only watch him snatch his hands and snatch his belly... The clothes had long been snatched, and even his belly was dug up by both hands.
But even though the pain was so painful, he didn't say a word, just digging his stomach with both hands. The concubine Quegenxian couldn't help but praise: "Master, I blame you wrongly, you are a man!"
"Why don't you call someone!" The aunt said loudly: "Come on now!"
The servants rushed in when they heard the sound, and the concubine ordered, "Hurry up and hold on!" The servants rushed forward, but it was too late... With a puff, Zhao Wenhua touched his abdomen and pulled it hard, and the abdomen was cracked, and the internal organs came out, and he died...
The real intestines are rotten, the blood flows all over the ground, extremely tragic! This is the last scene that Zhao Wenhua left to the world...
Of course, no one in Beijing knows this tragic scene now. But even if you know, you have no time to guess the inside story, because the second Beijing inspection that is closely related to them has begun...
On September 23, 2018, the 35th year of Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing was also the Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel. He was not involved in the affairs of the Ministry and acted arbitrarily. He neither discussed with the Censorate nor allowed the judiciary to intervene. He took the investigation alone and inevitably made a joke of misjudgment such as "Zhao Wenhua ranked first". Therefore, Li Ben stopped reflecting and was fined for one year. All the two lists he had listed were invalid!
The second assistant to the cabinet, Xu Jie, was also jointly with the new Minister of Personnel Wu Peng and the left censor of the Censorate Zhou Yan, and the three of them conducted the Beijing inspection together.
In his decree to appoint three people to investigate, the Emperor Jiajing emphasized: "The distinction between gentlemen and villains is very small. A gentleman is isolated and dissatisfied with the common people, and a villain is flattering and familiar with others is enough to make people scatter. The examination of the great ceremony should be to distinguish the subtleties of the mind and the truth of right and wrong, and to stay and stay. Do not distinguish between lowly, do not despise the distance from favour, do not detain the constant, do not pursue the past, and to open up the deeds to show the wise."
This is the lesson learned by Emperor Jiajing from the right and wrong caused by Li Mo and Zhao Wenhua during this year. It can be said that it is the true meaning of the proverb and should be followed by future generations!
The next day, officials above the fourth rank and above submitted a new statement. Jiajing may have a good imperial edict or a downgrade to others. Some orders to retire and live without any change.
At the same time, three adults presided over the inspection of officials under the fifth rank. Twenty-five people who had old illnesses, two of them were corrupt, two of them were absent from soft, one hundred and two of them were not careful, nineteen of them were impetuous, and nineteen of them were less capable than twenty-six. Then, Kedao Shiyi discussed more than ten people.
However, the court's response to the Beijing Inspection was very dull, far less than that of Li Ben's injustice and righteous indignation. The main reason was that Emperor Jiajing took back the right to review officials of fourth-rank or above this time. However, the last Beijing Inspection was impeached by Li Ben regardless of the quality, which shows how unfair it was last time!
Although this Beijing inspection is also suspected of protecting accomplices, overall, there are provisions to follow, and the focus is on investigating whether officials are competent. This is a great result for officials who have just passed through the storm.
Moreover, under the auspices of Xu Jie, the second assistant to the cabinet, everything in the Beijing inspection was carried out according to the system, and there were mutual corrections between the Science and Technology Bureau, so that the Beijing inspection could maintain the overall situation and everyone was convinced.
Because of his ability in the Beijing Prefecture, Xu Jie was promoted to the Grand Secretary of the Huagai Palace, and was given a rank of junior teacher and a python robe. He was treated the same as Master Yan Ge.
Shen Mo originally thought that there was nothing he had done about this Beijing inspection. After all, he had only been an official for less than a year, but in the list of 38 people who had high evaluations, he suddenly saw the name of "Celebrity Sizhilang Shen Mo", which made Zhang Siwei, who had only got second-class, shouted that it was unreasonable.
However, Zhang Siwei was just talking. He had been immersed in the cabinet for a long time and naturally knew that there were many laws in this world, but there was never a saying of "fairness". Anyone who could be silent could bloom like a sesame seeds, would have his own tricks.
"Your life is so good, my words are so stupid." After laughing and making a fuss, Zhang Siwei said with emotion: "First one is Mr. Li who is in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, who is your fellow villager, who will help you to the right middle Yun; the latter one is Mr. Xu who is in charge of the Beijing Prefecture, and you will be your master. I will give you a top-notch evaluation of gold and not exchanged. If you are not developed, it will be unreasonable."
Zhang Siwei was right. Only three days later, Emperor Jiajing summoned Chen Mo and personally announced the appointment: "The right middle Yun and the cabinet minister Zhilang is the Tongzhi of Suzhou."
I was really dizzy at this moment. Suzhou is the upper house, which is one level higher than Shaoxing, so the prefect is the fourth rank, and the Tongzhi is also the fifth rank... The same rank as the prefect of the middle and lower rank, which means that less than a month after he was promoted to the right Zhongyun, he was promoted to two levels in a row...
‘Will it be too high-profile if you raise three levels in half a year?’ I thought of this.
But the more high-profile one is still behind. Emperor Jiajing smiled and said, "Governor Susong Cao Bangfu, has been transferred; Suzhou magistrate Wang Chonggu, has also been transferred to Songjiang, and I will not send anyone to these two positions anymore. Do you know what this means?"
The silent head buzzed and spitted, "This means...This means..." and said with a bitter smile: "Your Majesty, I am a little confused, I can't figure out anything."
Emperor Jiajing laughed and said, "What kind of crime is human nature?" As he said, he broke it up for him, "Hu Zongxian, the new governor of Southeast, has made three requests for me. First, he is allowed to act cheaply and make up for rules and regulations; second, he is not allowed to set up governor Su Song for the time being, so as to prevent mutual restraint; third, he is asking for money... The military expenditure is short of one million taels next year, so I have to fill this hole. Do you know how I respond to him?"
Silent shook his head in confusion... In fact, he had already escaped from his surprise state, but he was so happy that he continued to pretend to be stupid.
"I said, I agreed to everything else, but I didn't want money." Jiajing smiled and said, "Do you know how he replied?" This time, without waiting for the silent answer, the emperor said, "He said, it's okay not to give money, just give it to someone." He pointed at the silent and said, "Hu Zongxian and I asked you to call you, and I want you to be the governor of Zhejiang for him."
Silently smiled and said, "This span is too big." He knew that with Hu Zongxian's wisdom, he would not really do such unpredictable things. The reason why he made such a request was just asking for a lot of money to pay it back locally.
Jiajing nodded and said, "You are too young and have only been a Jinshi for less than a year, so the governor should not even think about it. Moreover, there are many taboos when returning to the hometown to serve as an official, so you can't go back to Zhejiang." As he said that, a wry smile appeared on the corner of his mouth and said, "I originally wanted you to be a magistrate of Suzhou, but who knew that the two cabinet masters said in unison that there was no 20-year-old prefect?"
I heard the emperor say in a tone of abducting children: "I am fighting for you, saying that you are different from ordinary Jinshi. You have served as an inspector in Zhejiang and supervising the military. Although you have never been awarded at that time, you are already the sixth rank of Yitong. Now you have won the top scorer, ordered Hanlin, promoted to Youzhongyun, and have the experience of a cabinet minister. It is not too much to let him be a prefect."
Speaking of this, the emperor looked at the silent one after another. Seeing that he was already moved, he nodded with satisfaction and said to himself: 'It was not a waste of his expression.' Then he said with regret: "It's a pity that Master Yan has agreed, but Mrs. Xu has stubborn and will not agree to let you be the prefect no matter what. In the end, there is no way, so he has to let you be a sect first."
Silently, thanking her with tears in her nose and tears, she said to herself: "I am wronged to be a comrade? Why is it so awkward?"
Jiajing said again: "But don't worry, I will not send Suzhou magistrate again. In the entire Suzhou city, you are the largest deputy."
"I am afraid and cannot afford to take it..." Apart from this, I can't say anything else.
"Haha..." Jiajing finally put away the artificial "respectful and polite" look, sat back on his cushion, and slowly said, "If you think of responsibility first, it proves that I have not read the wrong person." As he said, he said to silently, "Do you know why I want to promote you?"
Silently wiped his tears and said, "Because, my memorial was right."
"No," Jiajing nodded and said, "I'm still very sober, not blinded."
Chen Si smiled shyly and said, "I really can't think of anything else I can do."
"Haha..." Emperor Jiajing was amused by him and leaned against the big pillow and said, "Although you are humble, I use you to solve the financial and taxation problems." He sighed and said, "Putting you in the cabinet in the past six months is to let you understand what the situation of the Ming Dynasty's finances have reached..." After saying that, he looked at it calmly and said, "Tell me, what is the cause of all this? Is there a way to solve it?"
Just as he was about to speak, the emperor waved his hand and said, "There is no third person here, and today's words will not be recorded in daily life. You don't have to worry about someone causing trouble for you. So I'm grateful that you can have no taboos once. Even if you accuse me of spending too much and accusing my ancestors of the laws of law, I won't blame you." As he said that, he looked at him firmly and said, "To be honest, I know that you have this ability."
Silently sighed, "In fact, Your Majesty doesn't have a big palace or a parade, how much money can you spend? But the Ming Dynasty was so stretched to be the only one who served Your Majesty alone, which shows that there was a problem at the root of the problem."
"Speak on." Emperor Jiajing said in a deep voice.
He nodded silently and said, "A country has no money, and the problem can only lie in two aspects. The income shrinks, expenditures expand, and the income is not enough. Naturally, the current situation will appear." He knew very well that although the emperor asked him to speak freely, if he really wanted to say something about attacking the ancestral system and accusing the emperor, he would definitely be able to avoid the first day of the lunar calendar and the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar.
But cliché is not enough...
"Everyone knows this, I'll ask you why?" Jiajing said.
This should be the last interview before taking up the job. I said silently and replied softly: "Don't discuss the expenditure issue, because the country has been short of money in recent years, and it has shrunk again and again, and can't shrink anymore." He knew that Emperor Jiajing was afraid of trouble, so he simply took over the things that were very involved and said: "From the income perspective, the taxes of the Ming Dynasty were mainly concentrated on agricultural taxes, and the land of princes, officials and gentry did not pay taxes, but the land of these people accounts for 80% of the country. In other words, the Ming Dynasty would use less than 20% of the arable land to feed hundreds of millions of people and provide national taxes. This is the reason why the income is too small... If this problem is solved, the Ming Dynasty would no longer have to worry about losing money."
"Continue to say." Emperor Jiajing nodded slightly. Of course he knew about this issue, but he did not have the determination to be an enemy of the world, so he could only ignore it.
Chen Shu sighed in his heart and continued: "The collection of other taxes is basically a formality... For example, commercial tax, in Shanxi, Lianghuai, Liangzhe, Fujian, Guangdong, these provinces, there are tens of thousands of wealth of 100,000 taels, and hundreds of more than one million taels. Since ancient times, all businessmen have been rich. If these people rely solely on land, they will never be able to accumulate so much wealth. They must have done business." As he said, he spread his hands: "But less than 500,000 taels of commercial tax are collected every year... If this problem is solved, I will not have to worry about losing money in Ming Dynasty."
"What you said makes sense." Jiajing shook his head and said, "But it's too unrealistic... In fact, I wanted to increase the commercial tax ten years ago, but the ministers opposed it in unison, saying 'scholars, farmers, industry and commerce'. At the end of the day, if the merchants collect more taxes on them, they will improve their status." He said, "There are no such bullshit reasons, but they can speak all the time. Do you know why?"
"There are more or less shops in the official family, which supply their expenses in Beijing. Of course, they are unwilling to charge more taxes by His Majesty." Silently smiled.
"Yes," Jiajing nodded and said, "I have to force myself to implement it, but I have disobeyed the situation and have many obstacles. In the end, I can only leave it alone..."
Of course, Chen Mo knew that Emperor Jiajing would definitely deny his first two statements. The reason why he said this deliberately was for the last and only choice to win the greatest initiative.
"Then there is only maritime trade. Japanese people are stupid and have a lot of money, Western Francisco, Spanish people are stupid and have a lot of money, and they are full of admiration for what our country produces. They are willing to buy it at a high price," said Silently. "So you can only sell our country's production and exchange it for real money."
"Yes," Emperor Jiajing stood up and said, "This is why I used you." He said, clearing his throat and said, "Listen to the order in silence!"
"I am here." Chen Silent quickly saluted.
"You are ordered to serve as the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and you are fully responsible for trading business with the barbarians." He said with a meaningful look: "The Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is under the responsibility of Huang Jin, who is beside me, and the Jiangnan Tea and Horse Bureau is under the responsibility of the new Hangzhou Prime Minister Tang Ruji. You must cooperate with them."
"I obey the order." Silence can only accept the order.
Chapter completed!