"How can this be true? Such a heinous thing could have happened under the bright sky! ”

In the early morning, in the office of the general political envoy, a fierce reprimand suddenly sounded, and I saw an official who was only about forty suddenly slapped the table and suddenly got up and sang.

"Such a mischief of the people, it should be punished with death!"

The reason why Li Jichen was so angry was because of the words "suing the emperor" in the "Gongyi Daily", especially the words that "the emperor has not heard of the emperor's plundering of the property of the small people since ancient times", which made Li Jichen rush, and the uncontrollable anger rushed straight to his head like a backlash.

But after seeing him blushing and walking back and forth in the room for a few steps, he decided in a hurry.

"Mingbo, let's go to the Information Department to inquire about this. This act of the "Gongyi Bao" is so despicable, and it is so fabricated news for the sake of sales, and it even does not hesitate to damage His Majesty's reputation with great disrespect, if it is not severely punished, how can it correct the law, and the people will be angry. They had to be seized by the Department of Public Information. ”

Li Jichen's reaction was so strong, naturally Song Yuming on the side couldn't help but be infected. But just when he wanted to nod his head in agreement, a slightly old and calm voice suddenly came from outside the door.

"What annoys you so much?"

Song Yuming and Li Jichen hurriedly raised their heads to look for prestige, only to find that Yan Ermei, the political envoy, was standing at the door with a smile. But seeing the low rank, he hurriedly stepped forward and saluted.

"The lower officials have seen the political envoys."

"Yo, I'll take a look at the "Public Opinion Daily", "Public Opinion for the World", this registration is good. ”

Yan Ermei replied, directly picked up the newspaper, as a political envoy, his identity is very special, the general political envoy is subject to the internal and external chapters of the refutation, all the Quartet to make suggestions, grievances, or illegal things, in the bottom book to transcribe the reason for the complaint, the petition to hear. Its officials have envoys, left and right political affairs, left and right senators, etc.

Its function is equivalent to His Majesty's eyes and ears, and because of this, Yan Ermei spends a long time every day flipping through the newspapers, and naturally has already read the news. Although he was also very angry, but in addition to being angry, he also saw the current problems of renting official fields, although these problems had already appeared, but this was the first time that someone had written so naked in the newspaper.

Originally, Yan Ermei was going to see His Majesty later, but she didn't want to hear Li Jichen angrily shouting from inside as soon as she arrived at the door, asking for "seizure by the Information Department".

"The lower officials know that it is really abrupt to seize it, and this is not the power of the political envoy, but since the "Gongyi Bao" insults His Majesty's wisdom with such disrespectful words, if the government does not react, what will the people think? The lower officials thought that they had to be sealed first, and everything else would be checked one by one after they were sealed. ”

Li Ji paused and continued.

"If this matter is not strictly investigated, I am afraid that it will not be Your Majesty's wisdom that will be damaged in the future."

"Oh, in this case, this matter is indeed urgent."

Nodding slightly, Yan Ermei said again.

"Then in your opinion, if the Information Department goes directly to the door to seize the newspaper, if the other party asks for a letter order from the Dali Yuan, what should the Information Department do?"

The Information Department does have the power to seize newspapers, but the seizure requires a written order from the Nanjing Dali Yuan, and without a written order from the Dali Yuan, it is an illegal act.

"...... this?"

Song Yuming was also stunned when he heard this, and he immediately said.

"Envoy to the government, this matter is very important, and it is feasible to make an exception......"

Yan Ermei, who had a solemn expression, looked at the two of them, and then said in a deep voice.

"After this exception, will it be possible to make an exception in the future?"

After asking this rhetorical question, Yan Ermei continued.

"You have to know, why did the world go in chaos yesterday because the law was not followed, and the officials arbitrarily made exceptions, regardless of the national law, and the officials did not obey the law, how could the people abide by the law? In this way, the world is naturally in chaos, and His Majesty's name can not be defaced by a piece of paper, and then this matter has its own court law to deal with it, so why do I need to intervene in the political envoys? ”

After such training, Li Jichen and Song Yuming realized their mistakes, and hurriedly talked about being taught.

Yan Ermei glanced at Li Jichen, but sighed in his heart, this Li Jichen was a foreign relative who attacked the Marquis of Wuqing, at that time, he was in the middle of the national change, and he was poor and hidden with his wife, until Fang Yizhi entered the mansion, and under the recommendation of Fang Yizhi, Li Jichen entered Jiangbei as an official. However, with his talent, it is already the limit to be able to do politics, although he is over forty-six years old, he is still impulsive. Sometimes, Yan Ermei even suspected that if it wasn't for the fact that he was Fang Yizhi's brother-in-law, he was afraid that His Majesty would not favor him.

Even in the Xingqian Dynasty, the various relationships in this official government are also complicated, only the Tongcheng Fang family, and there are more than a few people who are prominent and prominent?

Thinking of this, Yan Ermei naturally thought of her own family, and there were more than ten people in the Yan family, the reason for this is that the imperial court appointed them not only by virtue of talent, but also because of a large number of scholars or to the Qing Dynasty, or went to the Manchu Qing Dynasty to try, many of them were either exiled, or abolished their fame, and the Xingqian Dynasty also had limitations in employing people - loyal ministers are often not one person, but a family is all loyal ministers, and in return, they were naturally reused in the Xingqian Dynasty. In addition to the need to employ people, I am afraid that there is also hope that the world will know that the court will not forget the loyal and righteous people, and even after death, they will praise their families.

Just when Yan Ermei shook the thoughts in his heart and wanted to tell His Majesty about the matter, Zhu Mingzhong, who had already read the newspaper, also met with Chen Mingfu, the commissioner of the Investigation Department, in his study, the thirty-three-year-old Chen Mingfu is the eldest son of Chen Zilong, after entering the Qing Dynasty, he never went out of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, after Nanjing Kefu, under the recommendation of his father's old friend, he entered the Fujian King Curtain, and then followed the King of Fujian into the court, however, he did not choose to go to the local official, but after the establishment of the Investigation Department, he entered the Investigation Department, because he believed that as long as the officials could maintain integrity, The Jiashen Heavenly Change would not have happened, the Ming Dynasty would not have a situation where the rogue would have brought disaster to the world, and hundreds of millions of people would not have died tragically at the hands of captivity.

It's just that in the past year, Chen Mingfu's investigation is not limited to the officials themselves, his investigation is extremely extensive, involving all aspects of the Ming Dynasty, and because of this, even now, the investigation report has not been given.

But this did not prevent Zhu Mingzhong from calling him over to inquire, and as soon as he received His Majesty's will, he immediately entered the palace to report.

Although it is only a preliminary investigation report, a glimpse of the whole leopard, a report that is not detailed, can also give him a certain understanding of this.

Flipping through Chen Mingfu's report with an expressionless face, different from the joy when he saw the report in the past, this time he hadn't seen half of it, Zhu Mingzhong closed the report with a pale face, and then asked in a deep voice.

"Is it really that serious?"

"Back to Your Majesty, this matter is absolutely true, and there is no lie in what the minister has observed."

Chen Mingfu stepped forward and saluted.

"So, in the past few years, the renting of official land has not only not benefited the people, but has caused the people to suffer?" Zhu Mingzhong looked up at Chen Mingfu and asked. At this moment, he even felt a little blushing, after all, the law of "Guanshan Hai" was formulated by him, all wasteland belongs to the government, and the people are forbidden to cultivate it privately. Renting the people from official land and collecting official rent has always been the thing he has always been most proud of.

If you don't levy a penny from the people, the court can get tens of millions of taels per year!

How many people have been able to achieve such an achievement throughout the ages? In fact, the reason for all this is very simple - to change the people of the world into tenant farmers, and replace land with land rent, and in the past tenant farmers paid rent to the landlords, but now they are the government. The reason for this change is that the government is the largest landlord in the Ming Dynasty.

The rampant rampant of the rogues, as well as the purging and entry of the cowards, made not one in the world survive, and this also led to a large amount of land becoming wasteland. After the implementation of the law of Guanshanhai in the whole country, compared with the Wanli period, only forty percent of the country's acres of land still belong to the people, and the other sixty percent became official land because it was "ownerless wasteland", and with the increase in population, the people in order to plant more land, only rented official land, and the government naturally made a lot of profits - but obtained ripe land, and also received a high rent.

"Back to Your Majesty, these situations are what the minister has seen with his own eyes, and this is the case everywhere, but the degree is different."

Chen Mingfu replied honestly.

"Oh, you saw it with your own eyes?"

Zhu Mingzhong asked with an unkind face.

"Back to Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the biggest problem in the collection of rent in the official field is that the time for collecting rent is short, and the local government often limits it to one month, in order to urge the people to take the initiative to pay the rent, for every day of delay, half of the grain will be fined. The second is the grain color of the rent, although the imperial court limits the rent of the official land to 30%, but it does not limit the grain color, and the local government often requires the people to pay the best grain in order to show their merits, so that in order to make up for the grain deficit, the people need to pay 40% of the rent if they are less, and even up to 60% at most, and the people can be said to be overwhelmed......

Chen Mingfu reported unhurriedly.

"Your Majesty, this is a means of extorting the people with grain, and even the local officials profiting from it, and they oppress the people with grain, making them pay more rent, and then resell the excess grain to make a profit. The minister implored His Majesty to order a thorough investigation of this matter, and to divide the evil officials of the world, so as to give a warning to the officials everywhere, so that they would not dare to harm the people again. ”

Facing Chen Mingfu's suggestion, Zhu Mingzhong frowned slightly, and then asked with a solemn expression.

"You're saying it's extremely common?"

Chen Mingfu saluted again.

"Your Majesty, this matter is not only extremely common, it can even be said that it is the case in all counties in the world, if it is not severely punished, how can it make hundreds of officials in the world think that this is a policeman?"