Nanxun Town, Huzhou Prefecture.

The notice of the governor of Nanzhili strictly prohibiting disrupting the order of the market and cracking down on the underworld forces has been posted for three days.

But the local forces in Nanxun Town didn't take it seriously.

Yaxing is still bullying and dominating the market, while the green-skinned hooligans are still backed by the support of Haoqiang to collect protection money and extortion.

Even the magistrate who is responsible for governing Nanxun Town doesn't care, on the one hand, the local forces will also give him benefits, on the other hand, he can't offend the local forces for the imperial decree, so he still stays in the county seat of Huating County, and still follows the rules of ruling by inaction and not going to the countryside with official power.

The police department has not developed into these new towns, and can only control the surrounding areas of the county.

However, now, the brocade guard, who is specially responsible for rectification, is here.

Jinyi Wei Baihu Yuan Heng took a team of Jinyi Guards to Nanxun Town at this time.

Free development can also be said to be three regardless of Nanxun Town, which was not interested in the appearance of Jinyiwei at the beginning, and still only did its own thing.

Even Mei Zhixian didn't bother to care about it after knowing that Jinyiwei appeared, and now he was still worried about whether a noble person came to him a few days ago, and he didn't entertain him.

Zhai Yuanwai didn't take these brocade guards seriously, and now he was instigating his haonu to stop a merchant who was unwilling to buy goods from him, and not let the merchant unload the goods.

"In a word, if you refuse to sign a contract with our Zhai family for a day, our Zhai family will not let the porter here unload you for a day! Make your goods on the river and can't be sold ashore! ”

This Zhai family's hao slave said.

"However, your Zhai family has pressed the price too low, we have come all the way to Nanxun Town to sell, and we will discount the capital!" The merchant said.

"Your grandfather, I don't want to talk nonsense with you! I'll put my words here, if anyone helps this merchant surnamed Wei to deliver goods, my Zhai family will kill him and let his wife and daughter be sold to the kiln by his clansmen! ”

As soon as the Zhai family's slave finished speaking, Jinyi Wei Baihu Yuanheng walked over: "Is it difficult for your Zhai family to be the heaven of Nanxun Town, can you represent Wang Fa?" ”

"My Zhai family is in Nanxun Town, that's Wang Fa!"

After finishing speaking, this Zhai family hao slave found that he had an extra knife on his neck, and when he looked back, it was Jinyiwei, who was stunned for a while, and the arrogance at the beginning suddenly disappeared.

Jinyi Wei Baihu Yuan Heng pulled the knife hard, and the head of the Zhai family's slave rolled to the ground.

The entire audience was stunned.

"According to a special decree, after the announcement of the notice, all those who still bully the market will be killed!"

While Jinyi Wei Baihu Yuan Heng was talking, several other Jinyi guards also killed several other Hao slaves on the spot.

The merchant was frightened when he saw this, and he forgot to load the goods for a while, and Yuan Heng said when he saw this: "That merchant, you can get the goods now, don't think about sitting on the ground and starting the price, otherwise, our knife will kill you!" ”

The merchants and helpers all trembled and replied, "Yes, yes! ”

At this time, Zhai Yuanwai was instructing his housekeeper: "Don't throw away this batch of moldy rice, dry it, and then transport it to Ningbo to sell, and the navy will come to collect military rations in a few days, and this batch of moldy rice can still earn a good price!" ”

As soon as the housekeeper outside Zhai Yuan agreed, Yuan Heng broke in with the brocade guard.

"One is let go!"

Yuan Heng said first, then pulled out a knife and cut the housekeeper in half, and then pointed at Zhai Yuanwai with a knife: "How much moldy rice is there at home?" Where to hide? ”

"There are also 300 stones, all of which were hoarded in the famine last year and wanted to sell them at a good price, but unexpectedly, the Ministry of Agriculture transported a lot of sweet potatoes and potatoes, so they were not sold, and they were all hidden in the cellar, and the military master spared his life! Xiaomin is just doing business, and the small family still has some silver, and he is willing to give it to the military master! ”

Yuan Heng asked Zhai Yuanwai to find all the moldy rice, and then ordered people to burn the rice.

And Zhai Yuanwai and several of his business partners were dragged to the most crowded place in Nanxun Town, and they were all wiped on the spot! Heads fell to the ground!

……

This kind of thing continues to play out throughout Jiangnan.

Relying on their status as a lifter, the Fan family in Xiaotang Town, Huating County, openly instructed the ruffians and hooligans to collect protection money from the people and merchants in Xiaotang Town to enrich their own family.

A certain team of Jinyi Wei directly broke through his door and killed the head of the Fan family, more than 100 people's slaves and 300 land displaced people, and even used firearms.

And Xu Pengju, the Duke of Wei, also had to close his eyes and slash the knife at Zuo Zhong, a wealthy gentleman in Jiangning, who lent money and forced people to die.

Poof!

Xu Pengju didn't fail to kill others after killing one person.

……

Time.

The entire Jiangnan is discolored by the smell of brocade clothes and guards, whether it is a gentry bully or a green-skinned hooligan, there are tens of thousands of people killed.

Zhu Houzhao's original police force in Nanzhili has also strengthened its control power, especially after several corrupt police officers were also executed.

The local evil forces that affect public order in Jiangnan and disrupt the order of Jiangnan's commodity economy have been greatly reduced, and local officials in Jiangnan are also trembling, and they no longer dare to shield local forces, and even under the pressure of the imperial court, they have to follow the strict control.

In order to consolidate this achievement, Zhu Houzhao plans not to leave Jiangnan for the time being for two or three years, and he wants to let Jiangnan, a region where capitalism germinated, truly establish a modern civilization, and raise a level from humanistic quality to the people's economic living standards and municipal service standards, and become a benchmark for the future development of the Ming Dynasty.

Now it is only the first step, which is only to eliminate the evil forces that hinder the development of the commodity economy in Jiangnan and stabilize public order.

Hua Chen, a merchant from Guang'an, Sichuan, came to Wangdian Town, Jiaxing County, with 500 stone of grain, and saw that Wangdian Town did not have a tyrant who occupied the wharf, so he couldn't help but ask the people of Yaxing: "What about the people who dare to ask Boss He, don't they usually charge the wharf foot fee when they come?" ”

"So that you know that Boss He was executed by Jinyiwei last year, and all the seventy people under him were eradicated as underworld! The Qianhe River in the entire Wangdian Town has been red for several days, and there is blood everywhere! ”

The tooth walker said.

"Didn't you say that there are relatives behind this Boss He who are doing things in the court, how can he be killed by Jinyiwei?" Merchant Huachen asked.

"The imperial court has cracked down hard, and the army has been transferred, not to mention the relatives in the matter, even the relatives of the old Shangshu will also be killed, Your Majesty will sit in Nanjing, and the local law and order will be rectified, and no one will dare to anger Long Yan! Nowadays, in the whole Jiangnan, no matter who it is, they can buy and sell freely, and no one dares to bully the market anymore, and we now have to abide by the rules of these tooth shops," said the person in the tooth shop.

"This is really the emperor's grace, I knew earlier, I will transport more grain, this year's Shu harvest, I heard that Nanzhili drought and flood, I came thousands of miles to sell, but I was worried that it would be robbed in Puyuan Town like the year before last, so I only transported three hundred stones!"

The merchant said with some regret.

Like this merchant, other merchants who came to Jiangnan found that the commercial order in Jiangnan had greatly improved, and the number of merchants who came to Jiangnan to trade increased greatly for a while, which also led to a sharp increase in the volume of trade in Jiangnan.

Moreover, because the imperial court has not yet established a complete commercial tax system, many cities and towns are still only free trade, and local forces are suppressed by the imperial court, and most of the income has also entered the hands of the common people, which has greatly increased the income of the people in Jiangnan, and the wealth of Jiangnan has also increased significantly.

But Zhu Houzhao naturally will not be satisfied with this, letting the people have money can only be the primary purpose, because the free economic market is a market for the survival of the fittest, and in the long run, it will only go out The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer, and as the imperial court, it needs to avoid this phenomenon and spend the wealth of social growth on public undertakings that benefit everyone.

"Wu Wending, the governor of Nanzhili, the governor of Yu Shi Daijin, and you political envoys and inspectors, now Jiangnan can maintain law and order, the people can trade and produce freely, and there is no lawlessness, relying on the army, and it is the Jinyi Guard who is maintaining! However, the strict punishment and strict law can only be managed for a while, not for a lifetime, and it is impossible for the imperial court to use the army that has been tempered all the time to maintain local law and order, and you, as local officials in Jiangnan, must shoulder this responsibility! ”

Zhu Houzhao instructed the local officials in Jiangnan in this way.

Wang Shouren also said from the side: "What Your Majesty said is very true, the situation is changing, the system must also change, Jiangnan is different from other places, seventy percent of the people are working and doing business, and there are more merchants from Huizhou, Taiyuan, Zhaoqing, Chengdu, Wuhan who live here, and sixty percent of the world's displaced people are concentrated here, all of them are working and doing business, and we naturally can no longer manage them like we used to manage farmers!" ”

"Your Majesty, as well as the cabinet elders, the lower officials have been in charge of Nanzhili for many years, and they think that the maladministration of Nanzhili mainly has the following points: first, the tax administration is unclear, and the local apportionment is messy; the second is the loafsters who dominate one side, colluding with officials and officials to oppress the people; The third is that the number of officials is insufficient, the governance is disorderly, and the officials of a county do not know how many new cities and towns have been added under their jurisdiction, and how many people have been added! ”

Wu Wending also said at this time, and said: "Therefore, the minister thinks that it is necessary to change the official system and then change the tax at present, and the government should be delegated to the locality. In the imperial court, there are officials in Beijing who take charge of the affairs of the world and dispatch everything, and the officials of Nanjing can only be restrained if they are retained, and in the south of the Yangtze River, the officials of Nanjing only seek personal interests for themselves, not for the well-being of the people in the south! ”

Wu Wending's words exploded like a bomb among hundreds of officials, and Bian Xian, the imperial history of Nanjing's left capital, immediately stood up: "You are talking nonsense!" The Ming Dynasty has two Beijing systems, which is the old practice of Taizong (here Yongle has not been changed by Zhu Houzhao to become an ancestor, and in history it is Jiajing to become an ancestor), you are good at changing the ancestral system! Besides, there are still six departments in Nanjing, which is of deep significance. ”

"What is the deep meaning, it is nothing more than worrying that the north will not defend it when the time comes, and the south will stand again!"

Wu Wending said it very directly, and then said to Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, the minister has the courage to say bluntly, according to the ethics and ability of these Beijing officials in Nanjing, even if there are changes in the world in the future, the north will lose, they will only surrender and betray the country, and will never defend Nanjing and protect themselves, because they have no blood at all except for bullying the people in Jiangnan and holding the people of Jiangnan hostage against the central court!" ”

Zhu Houzhao admitted that Wu Wending's prediction was correct, and after the city of Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng and later fell into the hands of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the old and young people in Nanjing did not defend Nanjing, and those who surrendered did account for the majority.

However, Zhu Houzhao didn't expect that Wu Wending, a civil and military all-round talent who was overpromoted to governor by the prefect because of the pacification of King Ning's rebellion, would put such a big cannon at this time and directly attack the entire Nanjing Jingguan system.

"What does Wang Qing think?"

Zhu Houzhao asked Wang Shouren that the existence of a central official system in Nanjing was a problem left over from the history of the Ming Dynasty, but it did not mean that the Beijing officials in Nanjing were meaningless, so he did not know whether to withdraw or not for a while, but decided to ask other officials.

Wang Shouren also knew that many of the Beijing officials in Nanjing were idle in their posts, but it was undeniable that many military and political affairs in the south, especially in the southern Zhili, were still managed by the Nanjing officials, after all, the capital was far away from the south, and due to geographical factors, many southern affairs were naturally handled more efficiently in Nanjing.

What Wang Shouren could guess was that the reason why Wu Wending, the governor of Nanzhili, dared to bombard the various departments in Nanjing was nothing more than because he, the governor of Nanzhili, did not want to be constrained by this group of senior officials in Nanzhili.

Therefore, Wang Shouren only said: "Your Majesty, according to the ministers, it is not appropriate to withdraw the Nanjing Beijing officials, after all, the household and military affairs in the south still need to be presided over in Nanjing, and the annual grain is transported to the north, and the coastal defense of the southeast coast needs to be uniformly dispatched by the Nanjing Beijing officials, but the words of the governor Wu Wending cannot but be thoughtful, the rights and responsibilities of the Nanzhili and Nanjing need to be distinguished, and the Nanjing Jingguan shall not interfere in the affairs of the Nanzhili, and the responsibilities of the Nanjing Jingguan must be clarified!" ”

Wang Shouren said this, Nanjing Jingguan and Wu Wending have no opinion, for Nanjing Jingguan, it is good not to revoke Nanjing Jingguan, not to let them order Zhishi, for Wu Wending, he really did not have the luxury of hoping that the imperial court could give all the thousands of Beijing officials in Nanjing, he was just bombarding it, to achieve the goal that he, the governor of Nanzhili, could completely govern Nanzhili.

Zhu Houzhao thought to himself that these officials still knew the officials, and if it were him, he would really think that Wu Wen would definitely remove thousands of Nanjing Beijing officials, and he really wanted to abolish Nanjing's capital functions with some impulsiveness in his heart.

"Very good, Nanzhili moved to Suzhou after that, Nanjing Jingguan is not allowed to interfere in the local affairs of Nanzhili, but Wu Wending's three malpractices are to the point, now ban the system of special management areas, Nanzhili and Zhejiang provinces began to pilot reform the official system, first of all, the provincial level in the household administration, criminal administration, military administration, official administration, academic administration, etiquette administration, industrial administration and other aspects must have their respective departments and yamen, extending to the government must also have corresponding departments and yamen, and then extend to the county must also have various departments and yamen, increase local administrative power, and implement the system of autonomy in each village, However, court officials were required to be appointed above the townships. ”

Zhu Houzhao said: "Now the province has the Department of Administration, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Command, all of which need to be re-established as a department, and set up various departments according to various types of government affairs. ”

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, the officials were all surprised, thinking that His Majesty was going to increase the number of officials, but I was afraid that after the constitutional outline was set up to ban lowly status and restrictions on officials to engage in politics and study, they were already preparing for today's move.