my brother-in-law is the prince

Chapter 470

Zhang Anshi smiled.

Zhu Di nodded, obviously knowing that Zhang Anshi had something to say.

Then he said slowly: "Then, what these people said is the truth?"

Zhang Anshi said: "Reporting to His Majesty, it is probably the truth."

As soon as this remark came out, the officials couldn't believe it.

What Zhou Juren and others are complaining about is not small.

It is taboo to oppress the people in a calamity year.

Zhu Di frowned and said, "Huh?"

Zhou Juren and others took this opportunity to kowtow and said, "Your Majesty, please make the decision."

Zhang Anshi suddenly looked at Zhou Juren and the others with disgust, and said, "Of course I will make decisions for you, what are you in a hurry for?"

After finishing speaking, Zhang Anshi turned to Zhu Di and said, "Your Majesty, it's just that the ministers and Jin Yiwei are acting according to orders."

"By order..."

Baiguan was in an uproar.

Historically, only courtiers have taken responsibility for the emperor, and I have never seen a courtier pour dirty water on the emperor.

This An Shi is really rebellious.

After Zhou Juren heard this, his face turned pale, but he said desperately: "Could it be that the imperial court wants to put the grass people to death? The king wants the minister to die, and the minister has to die, let alone the grass people. It's just... the grass people, etc., do everything you can. Good people, how can you endure humiliation to such an extent... I implore Your Majesty to spare your life."

Zhu Diton felt upset.

good end.

How did Jin Yiwei harm the people, become Zhang Anshi harm the people, and finally become him, the emperor, harm the people?

It's just that Zhu Di knew in his heart that Zhang Anshi always had his own strategy, and his actions seemed to be muddled, but in fact he always had his own ideas.

So he suppressed the irritability in his heart, and then said slowly: "According to the order? What is the order?"

"Did Your Majesty forget?" Zhang Anshi said calmly, "Corrupt officials and officials colluded with local powerful and evil gentry to harm the people. Your Majesty ordered the officials to catch them all."

Hearing this, Zhu Di looked at Zhou Juren thoughtfully, then raised his eyebrows and asked, "Who is the powerful and evil gentry?"

"It's here." Zhang Anshi smiled, pointed at Zhou Ju and others, and said: "Not only them, but also those outside the Meridian Gate, all of them, now I invite you to enter the urn, and I have caught them all."

Zhou Juren and the others shuddered, and said one after another: "I am wronged, I am wronged..."

Zhu Di cheered up, sat down, and said, "Huh? Tell me in detail."

Zhang Anshidao: "Your Majesty, when there was a catastrophe in the four provinces, I realized that something was wrong. Since then, Your Majesty appointed Mr. Hu as an imperial envoy to inspect the four provinces, and the minister felt that something was wrong."

Zhu Di frowned and said, "Why?"

Zhang Anshi said: "There have always been natural disasters, and there must be human disasters. The only thing the court has to do is to send people with upright personalities to prevent them from happening. But Mr. Hu has a gentle temperament, and he is also a Wenyuan Pavilion. A bachelor's background, not from a prefecture or county, and I want to restrain these thieves who harm the people, I don't have too much expectation for this."

"Just these?"

Zhang Anshidao: "Not only that, I also passed the intelligence analysis of Jin Yiwei, especially the intelligence research led by His Royal Highness King Yi."

Zhu Di asked in surprise, "Can this also be found through research?"

Zhang Anshi smiled and said: "Everything can be researched."

As he spoke, Zhang Anshi took out a document from his sleeve and presented it with his hands.

Yi Shiha hurriedly took over the document and forwarded it to Zhu Di.

Zhu Di was a little dazzled for a while when he saw the densely packed numbers on it.

Zhang Anshi explained: "Jinyiwei has collected a lot of data in various prefectures and counties across the country, including land prices, grain prices, tenant farmers' harvests, and landlords' annual income."

"According to the number of previous years, a comparison was made. In the past few years, there were no major disasters in the world, but the harvest of the landlords was decreasing day by day. Your Majesty, please read the second page. There is information about the income of the landlords in Henan. According to rough calculations, the income in the past few years has dropped by [-]%."

Zhang Anshidao: "This is the situation where the landlords get food. Because a large number of young and strong people start to work, and some even go to sea to run boats, so that the manpower in the countryside is lost. In order to retain tenant farmers, many landlords adopt various methods. In addition to In addition to reducing the tenants to debt slaves and making them unable to escape by means of peace and loan, they also colluded with the government, set up cards along the way, and even refused to issue guides, etc. "

"Of course, even so, this kind of situation is still repeatedly banned, so...many landlords have to reduce land rents to attract tenant farmers."

"This is why their grain harvest has dropped by [-]%. The reduction in tenant rent has also brought many problems, such as the reduction in land prices. Your Majesty, one mu of land is rented to tenant farmers. Let them hand over three shi of rice, but now they can only collect two shi, so there is no reason why the land price should not go down."

Zhu Di looked at those numbers seriously, and the more he looked at them, the more shocked he became.

Looking at these many numbers, I found that each number is related.

Zhang Anshi continued: "Although the drop in land rent is a good year, it reduces the harvest of the gentry and landlords. But a good year also means a drop in food prices. Therefore, the landlord's income is not simply a [-]% drop, but More than sixty percent, Your Majesty will know when you look at the fourth page, there are the grain prices of previous years, which can be proved."

Zhu Di flipped through it subconsciously, and said casually, "Isn't this a good thing for the common people?"

"Good things are good things." After saying this, Zhang Anshi sighed, and continued: "But the result is mutual resentment. In the past, tenant farmers had no bargaining power because they had no choice. In this way, the landlords and gentry have the final say on everything. But after such a good thing happened, the conflicts between them began to intensify."

"Your Majesty, please look at page nine. This is the statistics in Hangzhou Prefecture. The statistics are the lawsuits received by the government and county government in previous years. Five years ago, the lawsuit on the rent in a county under Hangzhou Prefecture was only a mere one year. Seventeen cases, but in the past two years, it has grown to as many as 170 cases, which shows that the disputes between each other have begun to increase, and the contradictions have also increased."

Zhu Di never expected that these things could be analyzed based on the number of lawsuits.

In the past, Jin Yiwei, whether it was the time of Emperor Taizu Gao or Ji Gang's time, although they were known as riding the world, but their main duties were not secret whistle, but just picking people's corners and eavesdropping.

And Zhang Anshi can be regarded as playing Jin Yiwei well.

Zhu Di asked suspiciously, "So what?"

Zhang Anshidao: "The intensification of conflicts and the reduction of income will inevitably cause problems. These landlords and gentry still earn a lot of money, but there is actually a truth in the world. A person can easily earn 1 taels of silver a year on weekdays. If he is only allowed to earn 5000 taels a year, even if he is still well-clothed, still like a servant, and still dignified before others, resentment will inevitably arise."

"Because of this...Your Majesty, you can read the eighth page. On the eighth page, it is about the gambling stalls and public security in various counties. In a certain county in Hangzhou, there were originally four gambling stalls, but since then the number has increased to eleven. In addition to this, there are also various robberies and robberies, and they have also begun to emerge in endlessly."

Zhang Anshi patiently analyzed: "It is clear that the income of the tenant farmers has increased, and many strong men have gained more livelihoods, but in fact...the number of strong men has increased instead. Why is this? Jin Yiwei's estimate is that when the income is greatly reduced Under the circumstances, many landlords and gentry chose to degenerate, that is, they began to get involved in many other businesses, and ordinary businesses do not have much profit. His relationship with the government has already covered the sky with one hand at the local level, and using this as a cover has begun to become increasingly brutal."

Zhu Di continued to look at the many data, and said, "Go on."

Zhang Anshidao: "Under this kind of contradiction and resentment, a catastrophe, all the contradictions that were covered up before, broke out. Because many people want to take advantage of this catastrophe to earn a lot of money to recover their losses. In addition, the usual resentment also needs to be vented, so I predict that the situation may be even worse after the catastrophe, even to the point where there is nothing to worry about."

Zhu Di nodded: "Why didn't Jin Yiwei play before?"

Zhang Anshi said: "Reported, Jin Yiwei has been putting these data in the briefing all the time, but... the analysis and conclusion of the intelligence, but I dare not report it. Your Majesty, after all, this is just an analysis, and it is unnecessary. How dare I use it To put it bluntly, if this is the case, wouldn't this minister become Qin Hui's bastard?"

Zhu Di glanced at him, and said: "Qin Hui is Qin Hui, you are you, he is unfounded, Qing's analysis is a good way to govern the country."

Zhang Anshi said: "Actually...this set of things is not perfect enough, so I dare not rashly..."

But Zhu Di interrupted him and said, "Let's put these aside, let's talk about serious business first."

Zhou Juren and the others were terrified when they heard it directly.

They listened carefully, although they looked wronged, they couldn't help feeling a little fear in their hearts.

Because...Thinking about the past few years, it is indeed the same as what Zhang Anshi analyzed.

And this kind of feeling that I obviously have no intersection with the surname Zhang, but I never thought that people have been collecting, analyzing, researching, and seeing you clearly a few years ago. Creepy.

I saw Zhang Anshi then said again: "Because I had a premonition of this, I tried my best to buy grain in advance. Of course, I dare not doubt my good gentry in Ming Dynasty, saying that they will definitely harm the people. Your Majesty knows that." The minister, the minister has been notorious for many years. Because of this, the minister had no choice but to use the name of helping the people of Zhili. And the minister can't buy too much grain in Daming. After all, once a large-scale purchase of grain in the customs, it will definitely This caused a sharp rise in food prices, which is not only useless but harmful to relief, so although I also bought some food in some places that were not affected by the disaster, the vast majority of them have spent the past six months desperately from various places. The feudal town is begging to buy food."

When Zhu Di heard this, he glanced at him with relief, and said: "Prepare for the rainy day, and act prudently, you can be regarded as a seasoned seeker of the country. How much food did you buy?"

"Not many." Zhang Anshi said with a smile: "The main thing is that the towns are willing to support, so... they purchased about 2000 million stones."

2000 million stone...

Zhu Di: "..."

Zhu Di's eyes widened directly, obviously this number is indeed a bit shocking.

Zhou Juren and the others almost vomited three liters of blood.

What is the concept of 2000 million stone?One stone is enough to feed and drink a man for a month, and these 2000 million stones are enough to raise millions of people and eat him for a year.

They finally know...why the damn food...can't be bought all the time.

Zhang Anshi, however, enjoyed everyone's shocking gazes, and said with a pleasant smile, "Of course, the main problem is the lack of transport capacity. If we continue to transport continuously, it will be no problem to purchase tens of millions of stones."

Zhou Juren: "..."

When Zhou Juren heard this, his heart felt as if something was blocked suddenly, and he almost couldn't breathe.

Can you imagine.This man surnamed Zhang is really inferior to pigs and dogs. He sells so much grain to them at ten times the price. How could he know that in the eyes of this surname Zhang, the grain he can use is really more than a mountain, and he doesn't need a penny. value.

Zhang Anshi continued: "Your Majesty knows that the price of food in the West is low, especially that all feudal clans have plantations all over the West, and with the previous maritime trade, the transportation has been greatly facilitated, so...so... "

Zhu Di: "..."

Zhang Anshidao: "I have grain here, and I heard that in the four provinces, a large number of gentry and landlords colluded with the government and grain merchants, and began to hoard goods, and the price of grain increased by more than ten times. Did your majesty forget that that At that time, His Majesty summoned his ministers to see him, and he was very worried about this. The minister admired His Majesty's love for the people like a son. He also secretly made up his mind to find a way to share His Majesty's worries."

What Zhu Di wanted to say most at this time was that he felt sorry for food and money!

Actually bought more than 2000 million stones!

No matter how cheap the food in the West is, plus the freight, it is only three or four million silver, which is already in vain.

But when it came to this point, although he felt it was a pity, he just felt uncomfortable in his heart. As a majestic emperor, he still put on a magnanimous look, took a deep breath and said: "Well, can you This heart is not in vain for the prince to teach you by example."

Zhang Anshidao: "So I have people allocate grain, and at the same time sell it at a high price. It is strange to say that the minister is helping the people in the four provinces and counties. The more the relief, the more people will buy the grain. Buying at a high price is not an option, and if the ministers try to find a way to lower the price of grain, they will not be happy."

"The people in the four provinces, I tried my best to help the people. The food distributed alone was as much as more than 300 million shi. In addition, I also found a way to order more than one million sets of ready-made clothes in Taiping Mansion, as well as various Ironware, more than 300 million catties. There is also a supply of tea, 170 catties. In addition, I found a way to buy 4 cattle and horses, hundreds of thousands of stones of fish, 12 million pairs of cloth shoes, and a cart Nineteen thousand and seven hundred racks, 15 feet of tarpaulin, [-] catties of tung oil, [-] catties of salt, [-] printed books... and other relief materials, there are so many of them, they are countless."

This number, from Zhang Anshi's mouth, is absolutely shocking.

You must know that in the past dynasties, the relief was just a little food, and most of the food distributed was coarse food, which could be eaten without starvation.

But Zhang Anshi is generous, this is not relief, this is his own father.

Although Zhu Di also knew that Zhang Anshi spent a lot of gold and silver in relief, but when he really heard the amount of relief, he couldn't help being shocked.

There was a sudden silence in the hall, and everyone's expressions were wonderful.

Zhu Di hesitated for a moment, but couldn't hold back his curiosity, so he asked, "How much money did you spend?"

Zhang Anshi didn't seem to notice Zhu Di's tense eyes at all, and said calmly: "Not much, from food to various supplies, I calculated it in general, and it may cost tens of millions of taels of silver."

"..."

Zhou Juren and others, many of them stared wide-eyed, and were speechless for a while.

Even at this time, Zhou Jusheng had an absurd idea that Zhang An Shi actually spent tens of millions of taels of silver in order to entrap them and deceive them of the little money and family property on hand.

This man, he is crazy!

But in the thoughts of Zhu Di and Baiguan, there are some regrets.

Relief for the victims is just too expensive. In the past, the imperial government's relief can reach [-]% of this amount, which is unprecedented.

Zhu Di felt distressed, and still smiled and said: "Okay, okay, okay, it seems that Zhang Qing has always kept my teachings in mind, um... I am very relieved that Zhang Qing can love the people like a child."

Zhang Anshi smiled and said: "Your Majesty teaches by precepts and deeds. When I am by Your Majesty's side, even an elm-headed one can understand something."

But Zhu Di said again: "It's just that more than ten thousand taels of silver, where did it come from?"

Zhang Anshi looked hesitant and said: "This...is not easy to say."

Zhu Di's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that the funds were drawn from the commercial bank?

You know, in the firm, Zhu Di is the major shareholder. Could it be that this is out of Zhang Anshi's own pocket?

But Zhang Anshi said: "Your Majesty seems to have forgotten that the minister sells grain at a high price, but do people in various states and counties buy grain at a high price? These people...are really crazy when they buy it. Going out, even mortgaging your own belongings, borrowing money everywhere...you have to buy it at a high price. I have no choice but to see how enthusiastic they are, so I have no choice but to...follow their wishes."

Zhou Juren: "..."

Zhu Di finally let out a long breath of relief, and then said, "This grain... how much money did you sell for?"

Zhang Anshidao: "Your Majesty... not many. I probably calculated it. In fact, I sold more than 1000 million stones and got only 600 million taels of silver, which is enough to cover the previous expenditure."

Zhu Di: "..."

Zhou Juren: "..."

Baiguan: "..."

"Of course..." Zhang Anshi smiled again, and said, "Besides this income, there are some other incomes. After careful calculation, it may not be a small amount."

"What benefit?" Zhu Di looked at Zhang Anshi speechlessly.

Today is another eye-opener.

Zhang Anshi must have been a thief in his previous life, and thieves never leave empty space.