In addition to supervising, reporting, and being responsible, the authorities often send people down for surprise inspections, and some officials even noticed that there seemed to be people from the local intelligence department secretly monitoring them.

In such a tight anti-corruption network, many officials have become more open-minded.

As long as you don't take bribes, there is basically no problem, even if there is something wrong at work, at most you will be deducted from the bonus, and you will not be promoted.

In such a situation where there is no extra money, promotion becomes very important.

Because the welfare of officials is good, and the higher the better. If you want to make a fortune, you have to work hard to climb up and work hard to do your job well.

If you do better than others, not only will the bonus be increased, but you will also be promoted.

But it is undeniable that being an official in Shandong is tiring.

Unlike traditional bureaucrats, Shandong officials have no way to put on a show, and at the same time, they have to run around every day and have a lot of things to deal with.

As far as high-level officials are concerned, they must not only grasp the affairs of their own posts well, but also supervise the lower levels well, and once something goes wrong below, the upper ones must also be responsible.

It's impossible to cover it.

If anyone wants to cover it, the end will be the same as those corrupt officials.

Once something goes wrong, those officials think about how to remedy it, not how to cover it up and not let it know because it's impossible to cover it.

Shandong is not a place where the emperor is far away, Zhao Yan is the emperor in Shandong, who dares to mess around at such a 'foot of the Son of Heaven'?

…… Shandong's anti-corruption storm soon reached the point of shock to the world.

More than 100 corrupt officials were stripped and executed, and more than 300 landlords were shot, because Zhao Yan levied agricultural taxes and officials took bribes in the process.

For the first time, Zhao Yan showed his terrifying fangs, and the officials and landlords all over the world were shocked, and they showed deep jealousy of Zhao Yan.

The significance of this incident is not ordinary, first of all, Zhao Yan levied agricultural taxes in Shandong, which has touched the nerves of the landlords in the world.

The fact that the landlords were able to bring in alien races in order to fight the thieves shows the importance that this class attaches to the land.

At the same time, Zhao Yan severely punished corruption, and the cabinet did not let people collect taxes in the northwest provinces, which simply cut off the financial path of officials, and if Zhao Yan won the world, would they still have room for survival?

In the Forbidden City, Yang Sichang ran into the Qianqing Palace with a happy face.

Chongzhen saw Yang Sichang's expression and asked with a smile: "What good news does Yang Aiqing have?" ”

"Your Majesty, there is good news." Yang Sichang said with a happy look.

Chongzhen came to the spirit and said, "What is the good news, come quickly." ”

"Your Majesty, Zhao Yan has collected agricultural taxes in Shandong, and he has collected them very strictly." Yang Sichang immediately took out a letter, and Chongzhen hurriedly spread it out and read it.

"Those who have more acres of land are levied more, those who are less are not levied, and no one can afford to pay for the rich, regardless of the princes. If you don't accept it, you will collect all the land? Chongzhen looked at the contents of the letter, and his face was a little strange.

"Your Majesty, Zhao Yan has now collected a large amount of agricultural taxes in Shandong, and all landlords have to pay taxes, and if there is a little more land, the intensity of its collection is so heavy that it is simply to take away people's property." Yang Sichang said happily: "As long as we make a big publicity, in this way, Zhao Yan will soon become the public enemy of all the gentry of the Ming Dynasty." ”

"He wanted to collect both commercial and agricultural taxes, and both merchants and landlords were offended, and they raided the Confucian ......"

As Yang Sichang was speaking, Chongzhen suddenly sighed and said a little gloomily: "If it is me, I'm afraid I won't be able to do it to his level." ”

"Your Majesty ......" Yang Sichang couldn't help but be stunned.

"I have thought a lot about this incident, Daming is in the twilight of his life at this moment, if there is no new atmosphere, he will not be able to return to the sky after all."

"However, Zhao Yan is a rebel and thief."

"Yes, Zhao Yan is a chaotic thief." Chongzhen said excitedly, "Let people publicize it well, and it's best to run a newspaper." ”

Although Chongzhen felt that Zhao Yan had done the right thing, and for this country, the strategies he implemented were all right, but the key thing was that he was only the emperor in name now, and no matter how good the country was, it was not his, which was the source of the contradiction.

"Yes, Your Majesty." After Yang Sichang agreed, he said to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, the bill of eight million taels of military spending has been passed, and the affairs of the new army can begin." ”

"Now that we have 12 million taels in hand, how many new troops can we train?" Chongzhen came to the spirit and asked Yang Sichang.

"With the establishment of the Shandong Army, the infantry battalion is a battalion of 8,000 people, and the salary is high, beyond the ordinary officers and soldiers, and the equipment is exquisite, which is unique, and the cost of training the new army is quite high. If we have allocated the salaries of the officers and soldiers of all walks of life, we will still have 5 million taels, which is only enough to organize and train five battalions. ”

"Only five battalions?" Chongzhen couldn't help frowning.

"Can we not pay the military salary?" Chongzhen asked.

"If there is no military salary, the old army needs to be dismantled." Yang Sichang suddenly rolled his eyes, and whispered to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, the minister has a plan. ”

"Come on."

"If the emperor abolishes all the officers and troops in all provinces, this military budget will be saved, so that we can train at least 100,000 new troops." Yang Sichang said.

"What? Scrap them all? Wouldn't all over the Ming Dynasty be on fire everywhere? Chongzhen exclaimed, "How can this be done?" ”

"Your Majesty, listen to the ministers and explain the secret." Yang Sichang said with confidence: "Now we have no administrative power, even if the Ming Dynasty is not on fire, the taxes collected will not be our share." At the same time, compared with the soldiers and horses of Shandong, the soldiers and horses of the imperial court were scattered all over the Ming Dynasty. ”

"It's like a palm and a fist, you can't beat a fist with the palm of your hand. As long as Your Majesty dismantles the officers and troops from all walks of life, the forces can be reduced into regiments and form a big fist. And Zhao Yan was in control of the cabinet at this time, if he wanted the cabinet to collect taxes, he would inevitably send troops to garrison various places, so that he could disperse Shandong soldiers and horses to all parts of Daming. In this way, the situation on both sides can be reversed. As soon as the new army of the imperial court is completed, it will directly attack the Huanglong ......" Yang Sichang said sinisterly, "As long as Zhao Yan is destroyed, the provinces will return to the hands of the saints." ”

"Yang Aiqing is really my humerus." Chongzhen suddenly laughed and said, "Then disarm, dismantle all the inferior fighters in the provinces, transfer all the elites of the provinces to the Beijing Division, and then train the new army." ”

…… A few days after Yang Sichang started his action, the news reached Zhaojiabao. Zhao Yan looked at the intelligence and wondered, what is Chongzhen doing here?

Eliminate most of the officers and troops from all walks of life! Isn't this a self-destructive portal?

"The emperor wants to organize and train a new army, doesn't he want to cut all kinds of officers and troops and save military salaries to train a new army?" Yan Yuyao said on the side.

"They're thinking too simply! The eight million taels of military expenses approved by the cabinet are for the purpose of paying, and they must be paid by our people in Shandong, and if he dismantles the armies, the general will not pay them back. Zhao Yan sneered.

"Maybe they want to let our soldiers and horses be scattered to the provinces to weaken our strength, after all, now the administrative power is not in the hands of the emperor, and it is not interesting for him to put the soldiers and horses in the provinces." Yan Yuyao then speculated.

"Huh! I don't know who gave the emperor this bad idea. Zhao Yan couldn't help laughing, and Yan Yuyao said without thinking: "I think it's only Yang Sichang." ”

"Yang Sichang, I really didn't disappoint General Ben." Zhao Yan was in a good mood, sparing Yang Sichang's life at the beginning, it was really the right choice.

"Is the military budget given or not?" Yan Yuyao asked puzzled.

"Give, let him cut, let him practice." Zhao Yan said very simply, since Chongzhen wants to dismantle the officials and troops of the provinces, isn't this an opportunity for him to take advantage of immediately?

In this way, he will be able to control the provinces smoothly.

The expansion of the territory means an increase in income, and it also means an increase in the source of soldiers, Chongzhen wants to disperse his soldiers and horses to the provinces, and he completely recruits a large number of soldiers and horses.

At the same time, it will be easier to clean up Chongzhen in the future, as long as you fight a hammer battle.

Even if he trains 200,000 new troops, what if he doesn't have a strong industrial base and sharp weapons? Shandong, which is full of fortresses, is enough to drag them to death.

The new army that Chongzhen is training now is a military system that the Shandong Army does not use, and the musket is also an old-style musket, and the artillery has no heavy artillery, and he has not learned much in tactics, so what threat can this have?

Moreover, in this era when weapons are not yet developed, the training, will, and faith of the army are the most important, and how strong can the new army of the imperial court establish faith?

Chongzhen's dismissal of the officials and troops in various provinces is equivalent to opening the door to Zhao Yan and can easily penetrate into the provinces.

"Write a letter to the cabinet, first allocate this year's military spending to the emperor, and then kill him next year." Zhao Yan said to Yan Yuyao with a wicked smile.

"...... next year"

"Let the emperor disarm again next year!"

Chongzhen is congenitally deficient now! The finances are in Zhao Yan's hands, no matter how much he jumps, he can only jump within the limits given by Zhao Yan.

After the Mongols are settled, it is time to tease the emperor's nerves.

…… As for the cabinet, in March, all the officials in Shanxi were changed from top to bottom, and Ruan Jingyuan was transferred to the governor of Shanxi, while all the officials in the prefectures and counties below Shanxi were officials trained by Zhao Yan.

The original Shanxi officials were transferred to the Beijing Division, and each of them was assigned some inconsequential positions.

By mid-April, everything was ready.

On April 15, Zhao Yan immediately announced the conquest of Mongolia. In this expedition to Mongolia, Zhao Yan did not personally conquer, but he would go to Shanxi.

He's going to Shanxi to raid his home!

On 16 April, the brigades that had already been prepared, under the leadership of Zhao Yan, left Shandong and headed for Shanxi.

The news of Zhao Yan's expedition to Mongolia had spread as early as March, and as soon as Zhao Yan set out on the expedition, the people of Shandong greeted each other again, and the gentry of Shandong also came.

However, these gentry did not have the enthusiasm they had before, but they were under the eaves and had to bow their heads.

These gentry all understood that if they wanted to build Zhao Yan in Shandong, they would simply be looking for death.

Of course, there are also a large number of gentry who support Zhao Yan, because Zhao Yan has opened a way out for them to become industrial.

The imposition of agricultural taxes is also reasonable with them, and it is not an arbitrary levy.

Since the announcement of Shandong's agricultural tax, the price of land in the western three prefectures has plummeted, all the way back to the previous seven taels of silver per mu.

When it was seven taels, because the people of the eastern three prefectures began to buy land in the western three prefectures, the trend of continuing to decline was stopped, and then it began to climb slowly.

The reason for the plunge was simple, and that was that those landlords began to sell their land. Xisanfu is an area with a high degree of land annexation, and as soon as the new agricultural tax bill is implemented, it means that a lot of taxes will have to be paid, so it will naturally be sold.

In terms of sale, the time is not so urgent, after all, the agricultural tax will be implemented next year, and although everyone has to pay taxes this year, the maximum amount is only 500 acres, and there is still more than half a year to adjust.

In addition, the people in the eastern three prefectures went to the western three mansions to buy land, and the people who took over the land stopped, and the trend of plummeting was stopped, and there was a momentum of climbing, but it also rose to eight taels and one mu and did not move.

Although there are very few people in the East Three Mansions, they are very rich on the whole, and almost every household has spare money.

Anyway, the tax collection below 500 acres is so small, there is enough money, and it is enough to buy 500 acres to stop.

Such a phenomenon is also what Zhao Yan is willing to see.

The people of the three eastern provinces are much higher than the people of the three western provinces in terms of loyalty, and the capital invested in the three eastern provinces to buy land in the three western provinces does not hinder the development of industry and commerce.

The development of industry and commerce needs to enclose land and let people get rid of agriculture, in fact, the current land annexation is very serious, it belongs to the type of overcircle, just balanced, it will not affect the development of industry and commerce, because the Ming Dynasty is not Britain after all.

It doesn't have much impact on the banks, and although a large amount of money is taken out to buy land, the money eventually flows back into the bank.

Those who have bought land and have no money, if they want to invest in industry and commerce, they can also mortgage the land to the bank and borrow some silver first.

It's just that Zhao Yan took five infantry brigades out of Shandong, and the situation changed.

Wherever Zhao Yan passed in the past, the gentry would come out to greet him.

But this time it was much less.

Because Zhao Yan's reputation has become bad, as soon as Zhao Yan's agricultural tax is collected, the surrounding provinces have also received news one after another, and those gentry no longer support Zhao Yan.

At the same time, the military discipline of the Shandong army is very good, and it will not disturb the people everywhere, and those gentry will not come out to greet them.

…… The five infantry brigades were equipped with a large number of horses for this expedition, and each soldier had a horse to carry on his behalf, although it was not a war horse, but it was not bad at carrying weight.

The logistics unit is equipped with a large number of war horses.

The current Shandong Army has become a wealthy motorized force.

There are many advantages to using a war horse to travel, first of all, you can speed up the march, but this is not the main thing. The most obvious advantage is that it preserves the physical strength of the soldiers, exempts them from the pain of trekking, and makes the battle seem not tiring.

If you are tired from every battle, then there will be serious war weariness, and the will of the soldiers will be greatly damaged.

This is also one of the reasons why the nomads can continue to win against the militarily declining Central Plains army.

At present, Zhao Yan's soldiers of the Shandong Army are not pampered and raised, but they are equipped with horses to travel, coupled with continuous victories, their morale is high enough to surpass all armies.

They were joined by 30,000 armed policemen, the strength of six provinces.

The marching speed was very fast, advancing to Shanxi at a speed of more than 100 miles every day, and only two days after leaving Shandong arrived at the steel base Handan.

After walking from Handan for three days, we arrived at Lu'an Mansion.

After arriving at Lu'an, Zhao Yan had the infantry brigade continue north from the official road to Datong to join Lu Xiangsheng's Xuanda soldiers and horses, while he took 50,000 armed policemen to prepare to raid his home.

Zhao Yan divided the armed police into 50 brigades of 500 people, and then arranged their own raid points.

In the late Ming Dynasty and Jin merchants, the most abundant capital were the Chang family, the Nie family, the Cao family of Taigu in Yuci, the Qiao family and the Qu family in Qi County, the Li family in Pingyao, the Hou family and the Ji family in Jiexiu, the Kang family in Linfen, the Pan family in Wanrong, the Yang family in Yangcheng and so on. They all have a trade point in Zhangjiakou, and the Mongols and Jurchens outside the Saiwai are closely connected, their silver exchanges, often tens of thousands of taels, their goods branches, throughout the northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, they were both big merchants, big usurers, and big landowners, and they all had extremely strong capital. And the crazy smuggling lasted almost the entire Ming Dynasty.

In the past, when the Manchus were not rising, they smuggled mainly Mongols and some other ethnic minorities, but since the rise of the Manchus, they have one more customer.

Businessmen are heavily profitable, and with a profit of 300 percent, it is enough for them to do everything.

Grain and weapons were the most smuggled to the Manchus in the past.

This time, Zhao Yan raided his house, brought a large number of people out, and did a full investigation in advance, and almost all the property distribution points of these Jin merchants were almost checked.

Therefore, Zhao Yan divided half of his troops and divided them into 50 brigades to arrange the seizure tasks in Shanxi, and each brigade had special statisticians and supervisors.

After the arrangement, the teams set off separately with Zhao Yan's execution order. And Zhao Yan took the remaining 25,000 people and went to Datong Mansion.

It's not that simple.

It's not just that other people's houses are copied, there are still a lot of Jin merchants' industries, and these industries must also be confiscated.

Although it is said that if the house is stolen, the contract of those properties will be obtained, but the problem is that in the process, it is easy to lose money.

For example, in the raided Jin Shang firm, the shopkeeper ran away with the silver, or his family members ran away with the silver, these situations may occur.

And the largest number of Jin merchant industries are still Zhangjiakou.

Zhao Yan left Mao Yuanyi in Shanxi, gave him full command of the seizure work in Shanxi, left him 25,000 people, and also arranged 5,000 people to set up card checks all over Shanxi, while Zhao Yan took 20,000 people to Zhangjiakou.

All the trading houses there must be confiscated.

All operations should be carried out suddenly and comprehensively, without giving the Jin merchants a little time to react, which requires a large number of troops, and at the same time, it also requires a strict layout.

At present, the upper-level officials in Shanxi have all been replaced by Zhao Yan's people, which gives great convenience, and it is very easy for soldiers and horses to enter the city.

…… 25,000 armed police troops, under the command of Mao Yuanyi, quickly went to various county towns in Shanxi, and at the same time, 5,000 people began to set up checkpoints in various parts of Shanxi.

The people of Shanxi are no strangers to these armed police, because the uniforms worn by these armed police units are the same as those of the previous inspection teams.

It's just that the name has changed, and the scale has also become larger.

As long as the people of Shanxi look at these armed policemen, they will immediately know that they are the general's soldiers, and they are not afraid of these armed policemen at all.

When many people saw it, they would enthusiastically come up to deliver water, because these Shandong soldiers never received things from the people, only water.

There were those who delivered water, and all of them were received, and the education committee in the army was chattering there and taking the opportunity to educate the soldiers, and then rushed to the destination to prepare to raid the house!

(To be continued)