"Bang!"

November 13 of the first year of Taichang, the time of the child......

When Li Juren, who was asleep, heard the sound of kicking the door, he hurriedly pushed away the maid next to him, and as soon as he wanted to get up, he felt a cold thing against his neck.

"Li Juren, please come with us."

A cold voice came, and when Li Juren came back to his senses, he only saw the brocade guard in a scarlet robe in front of the bed.

At this moment, Li Juren was cold, and he only felt weak in his hands and feet.

"It seems that you can't leave, so ......" Shen Lian turned his head to look at the bystander:

"Invite Li Juren to the Hundred Households!"

"Yes!" The brocade guard next to him responded, and then set up Li Juren, Ren is the cold winter season, Shen Lian still asked people to carry Li Juren, who was only wearing a middle coat, to the hundred households.

It was only when Li Juren was pushed into the Hundred Households that he suddenly came to his senses, but he soon discovered that the prison of the Hundred Households was already full of familiar faces.

They were all wearing medium coats, not even a thick garment.

Fortunately, the repairs of the hundred households are okay, and there is no air leakage, otherwise if they are locked in for one night, at least a third of the people will die.

For this kind of encounter, Li Juren sat aside in frustration, and other people who were close to Li Juren in the past also shut up and did not speak.

Since yesterday's letter from Nanjing, they have known that they have all become outcasts of Nanjing officials to protect themselves.

It's okay if the family property is gone, as long as they don't recruit it and retain the strength of Nanjing, their relatives can still be sheltered, and then the family has the possibility of making a comeback.

At the moment, I can't say anything, I can't recruit anything.

The people here all have fame, and they don't dare to torture them.

With this in mind, everyone leaned against the wall and waited for death.

It's just that at the door of the hundred households, Lu Wenzhao drank a cup of ginger tea, looked at the wind and snow in front of him, and said to Shen Lian:

"This group of guys probably won't say anything, long live not to speak, and we don't have the qualifications to torture them."

"But don't worry about this, the most important thing at the moment is to do a good job of the things that His Royal Highness has explained."

Lu Wenzhao was referring to the raid of the house and the inventory of the acres, and he kept this in mind, so he wrote:

"Don't worry, just find out the officials involved, and then send someone out to measure the acres."

"Officials, officials, these must be investigated." When Lu Wenzhao said this, he paused, took a deep look at Shen Lian and said:

"Speaking of Shen Lian, you and I are old acquaintances, so it's better for you to stay and help me."

The help in Lu Wenzhao's mouth is definitely more than this Huaibei hunger, if it is according to the character of others, he may have agreed directly in order to fly Huang Tengda, but Shen Lian did not.

"My lord, I still like to work with my eldest brother."

"Hahahaha......" Hearing Shen Lian's words, Lu Wenzhao laughed and patted Shen Lian:

"Sure enough, I knew that your character was like that."

Having said that, Lu Wenzhao still had a little regret in his eyes.

He continued to drink tea, and did not care about the rich households, officials, and officials who were arrested in the hundred households, and just waited quietly.

After an hour, a brocade-clothed guard Qianhu came from a distance and stepped forward to compose:

"Your Excellency, Pizhou's criminal officials, officials, gentry, and grain merchants have all been arrested, a total of one hundred and twenty-seven people."

"Okay" Lu Wenzhao bowed slightly:

"Since they have all been arrested and returned, I will ask the brothers to be on duty, and when the news from Huai'an and Xuzhou comes tomorrow, they will be presented to Yang Du for handling in the matter."

Lu Wenzhao was reluctant to be a villain, and more importantly, he was afraid that after being a villain, the five parties of Qichu, Zhejiang, Xuankun would turn their anger on themselves and His Highness at home.

Therefore, at the moment, he only helps to arrest people, and the real villain has to be done by Yang Lian of the Donglin Party.

Therefore, after arranging everything, he took people to rest, until seven o'clock the next day, the gentry, grain merchants, and officials in Huai'an Mansion and Xuzhou and other places were handed over to Yang Lian.

There were 674 men in all, and behind them were tens of thousands of people, as well as hundreds of thousands of tenants and slaves.

It is these six hundred and seventy-four people who have mastered more than seventy percent of the wealth of Huai'an Mansion and Xuzhou, although Jin Yiwei has not yet raided the house, but the various information written by Jin Yiwei on the back of their names can see their energy.

Yang Lian's hands kept shaking, which was a sign that he was holding back his anger, but after Lu Wenzhao's arrival, his words ignited his anger like adding fuel to the fire.

"Yang Du gave the matter, this is just the list of the government and the gentry, and the officials of the guard, and they need to wait for half a month before the Zhejiang soldiers can go north."

Lu Wenzhao sat aside, so did Zuo Guangdou, and Yang Lian heard Lu Wenzhao's words, and forcibly suppressed his anger and said:

"When will Qi Yuanfu arrive in Pizhou?"

"Qi Yuanfu is training in Shaoxing, and he should get the will of Long Live today." Lu Wenzhao explained:

"They should be able to take the waterway, take a boat to the north, and then divide their troops in Zhenjiang, one to Nanjing, and the other to Pizhou."

"If you take the waterway, plus the time to prepare the grain and grass, you should be able to arrive in Pizhou on November 26."

It is now November 14, that is, Qi Yuanfu will arrive in Pizhou in 12 days.

This speed is already very fast, and if you go by land, it will take at least a month.

In this regard, Yang Lian did not urge Qi Yuanfu, but tightened the list in his hand and said:

"When Bo Qin comes, I will interrogate everyone with Bo Qin, and then Jin Yiwei will raid the convicted people one after another, and the grain will be filled into the official grain for disaster relief, and the silver will go south to buy grain, and all the fields and acres will be included in the ......."

"Yang is in the middle of the matter." Lu Wenzhao suddenly interrupted:

"I'm really sorry, Banzai and His Royal Highness have a will, the grain is for disaster relief, the silver taels are charged into the inner money, and the acres of land belong to the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and are distributed to the local people and displaced people for farming, and the Imperial Horse Supervisor is divided into seven and three points."

"......" Hearing this, Yang Lian was silent.

He was wondering if he wanted to dismiss Zhu Youzhen's idea, and Zuo Guangdou next to him was also paying attention to his old friend.

With his perception of Yang Lian's character, Yang Lian would be angry in the next second.

But accidents always come quickly, Yang Lian did not get angry as Zuo Guangdou expected, but said suddenly:

"The old man knows, since this is the case, let's do what the Fifth Highness and Banzai said."

"Wen Ru ......" Zuo Guangdou frowned slightly, and whispered Yang Lian's words.

You must know that these more than 600 households are involved in millions of acres of cultivated land, although even if the imperial horse supervisor gets this cultivated land, he still has to pay the land tax to the local government.

However, the Tian Fu of the Imperial Horse Supervisor does not contain Liaoxiang, which means that the Liaoxiang of Huaibei and Xuzhou in the future will pay less than 100,000 taels of silver.

Not only that, but the burden on the people will not be reduced, which is a disguised harm to the people.

However, in this regard, Lu Wenzhao understood what Zuo Guangdou meant, and took the initiative to explain:

"Please rest assured, after all the fields and acres are merged into the Imperial Horse Prison, the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the people will be divided into seventy-three, the people will be seven, and the Imperial Horse Supervisor will be three."

"In addition, all the acres of land inspected will be paid the field levy, as well as the taxes of Liaoxiang, and these fields will be paid by the imperial horse supervisor with silver and grain."

As soon as Lu Wenzhao explained, he made it clear that this was a move to help the people, not harm the people.

Giving land to the people, then collecting only 30% of the grain production every year, and finally helping to pay taxes, this point was simply high-pressure in the eyes of later generations.

But in this era when the landlords account for 50% and the common people account for 50%, this is already an excellent benevolent government.

"But even so, involving millions of acres of land, this matter is not something that the old man and Yang can call the shots in the matter." Zuo Guangdou replied.

Indeed, if millions of acres of cultivated land are under the management of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, then the Imperial Horse Supervisor is the third department that has the most acres of land in official control, in addition to the Taifu Temple and the Guard.

It is normal for Zuo Guangdou not to agree, as for why Yang Lian agreed, it is because Yang Lian knows Zhu Youzhen's thoughts.

To put it bluntly, what Zhu Youzhen thought was very simple, that is, to make a royal horse prison branch in Nanzhili, and lay a nail here, once Nanzhili changed in the future, it would be easy to be taken down.

Jiangnan is the stronghold of the Kun Party, the Xuan Party, and the Zhejiang Party, and it will be very uncomfortable to think that these three parties will have a nail planted here.

Of course, in addition to making the three parties uncomfortable, Yang Lian is more important to make Zhu Youzhen disagree with the three parties.

Since Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne, in less than two months, Zhu Youzhen has relied on Zhu Youxiao's favor to do many things that have affected the court.

Other people may not know these things, but Yang Lian and Zhu Youzhen have been staying together and know his methods very well.

If he wants to evaluate Zhu Youzhen, he is resourceful and immature.

The former is a compliment, and the latter is not disparagement.

Many of the policies proposed by Zhu Youzhen are aimed at the key points, and once they are promoted according to his ideas, it is normal for the Ming Dynasty to rekindle its vitality.

But his problem is that the political means are too immature, at best, they are only a bureaucrat, or the level of the magistrate, which is far from worthy of the big stage of the Ming political center.

Of course, at the age of ten, such a means is already very good.

Moreover, due to the supplement of Zhu Youzhen's political means of proofreading and Zhu Youzhen, the two brothers cooperate quite harmoniously, and it can even be said that the current situation is that these two brothers are playing together.

If the current situation continues, Zhu Youzhen is in charge of military affairs and changes the law, and Zhu is in charge of the school and balance, then in less than ten years, Daming Zhongxing is just around the corner.

But Yang Lian also knows one thing, that is, the Donglin Party is not so united and not so clean.

At present, he wants to take advantage of the fact that he still occupies a certain position within the Donglin Party to help Zhu Youzhen and Zhu Youxiao stabilize their forces.

If one day the Donglin Party is as corrupt as the township party such as Qichu, Zhejiang, Xuankun and other township parties, then he will resign and return to his hometown, and go home to guard the dozen acres of paddy fields in his family.

Yang Lian's thoughts were very simple, but Zuo Guangdou next to him didn't know about it.

He still insisted on his opinion, believing that the Imperial Horse Warden could not be given so much arable land.

However, just as he was about to continue speaking, Yang Lian kicked him vaguely, and then spoke first:

"Millions of acres of cultivated land are too extensive, and specific matters need to wait for the famine in Huaibei to go to the imperial court, and the six ministries, the cabinet, and the six departments will discuss together."

"It's just that for now, in order to help the people recover their lives, I will hand it over to the Imperial Horse Supervisor to help manage it for the time being."

Yang Lian played a round, and Zuo Guangdou was kicked, knowing that it was his friend who didn't want to interrupt himself, so he was silent, and Lu Wenzhao nodded when he saw this, and then started a new topic:

"These people who are imprisoned in the prison, I will ask my subordinates to interrogate."

"But will this Huaibei hunger eucalyptus continue?"

"Naturally!" Zuo Guangdou couldn't help but speak.

Although they are both members of the Donglin Party, Zuo Guangdou, like Yang Lian, was born in the rich peasant class, and is not even a small landlord.

They wanted to reduce the land endowment because they knew that the people really couldn't stand the field endowment and all kinds of additions.

The other Donglin Party members thought about reducing the field tax because they didn't want to pay taxes, so the field tax was reduced, so that the burden on their bodies could be lightened.

But after the reduction of the field tax, the tax of the land tax needs to be filled with something else, and this thing is miscellaneous.

In fact, the burden on peasants in ancient dynasties was never on regular taxes, especially in the Ming Dynasty.

If you only look at the tax rate of the Ming Dynasty, and then compare it with the tax rate of three or four percent or even half of Europe at every turn, then the Ming Dynasty is a great benevolent government.

But in reality, in addition to taxes and land rent, the peasants of the Ming Dynasty also had to bear the burden of forced labor.

In particular, forced labor, which is a voluntary labor that allows peasants to bring their own dry food for several months, will suddenly increase the burden once they miss the farming season.

Conscription is the biggest burden, and the second largest burden is the "consumption" that is several times higher than the regular tax of 30 and 1, and the apportionment of officials from all walks of life.

But even if you get here, even if an acre of cultivated land yields two stones per mu, about 320 catties of grain, it will only be less than 200 catties if you husk and harvest, and the regular tax on the field plus fire consumption is only about 20 catties of grain, and the peasants can barely survive.

The problems that really make the peasants unable to survive are all kinds of miscellaneous items.

For example, when you go out to catch up with the market and encounter the checkpoint, you need to pay tariffs, in addition, there are water foot money, car foot money, food money, as well as library money, pu basket money, bamboo basket money, along the river gods and Buddha money, etc., all kinds, various.

There is even an official salt monopoly with an extremely high price, which is also a disguised tax.

Within the Donglin Party, as at present, most of them are rich peasants and small and medium-sized landlords.

Therefore, the Donglin Party's proposal to reduce land taxes and reduce tariffs at checkpoints is actually for their own sake, and the peasants' benefits are only incidental.

People such as Zuo Guangdou, Yang Lian, and Yuan Keli are a minority within the Donglin Party, and it is precisely because they are a minority that it is almost impossible for them to implement the new policy.

Zuo Guangdou said "natural", that is, to rely on the great hunger of Huaibei to directly defeat the four parties of Zhejiang, Xuan, Kunqi and Qi, which are the most powerful and rich, and the remaining Chu parties will find an opportunity to slowly clean up.

As long as they use the Huaibei Great Hunger and cooperate with the emperor's modification of Jingcha, they can even seriously injure the four parties in this Jingcha.

At that time, the vacancy will be filled by Donglin's officials, even if the people who come up are not honest, but as long as they support their political ideas, it is enough.

Zuo Guangdou and Yang Lian both thought so, and they did the same in history.

The result is very tragic, in line with the principle that if I can't beat you, I will join you, a group of township parties poured into the Donglin Party, and most of the officials promoted by the Donglin Party Jingcha were also mouth cannons, and finally the apocalypse got bored.

Without the emperor's support, the Donglin Party would only have the end of collapse.

At present, relying on the imperial power to stand on his side, what Zuo Guangdou has to do is to use the identity of Zuo Yushi of the Imperial Court of the Imperial Procuratorate, use the Huaibei Great Hunger to throw bricks and jade, and thoroughly investigate Jiangnan!

Lu Wenzhao will have no opinion on this, and he even wants these civil officials to be ruthless.

Therefore, he set his eyes on Yang Lian's body, wondering what Yang Lian would say.

Under his gaze, Yang Lian pondered for a long time before he spoke:

"In my opinion, the eucalyptus still has to continue to be checked, but how much you can check depends on Lu Tong's knowledge of you."

"Yang Du, please rest assured in the matter, this matter is on me, and I will find out all the people related to the hunger in Huaibei."

Lu Wenzhao will not let go of this opportunity to invite merit, but the object of the invitation is not Yang Lian, but Zhu Youzhen and Zhu Youxiao.

If you find out as many officials, you can copy as many homes.

Grain is not mentioned for the time being, and the acres of land and silver alone can please the above two.

"In that case, then Lu Tongzhi will send someone to the south to check first, and the north can be handed over to us."

Yang Lian spoke, and Zuo Guangdou also nodded, but Lu Wenzhao squinted slightly, hesitated again and again before nodding and getting up, and then retreated after saluting.

However, after Lu Wenzhao withdrew, Zuo Guangdou frowned and said:

"Wen Ru, do you know what a big deal it is for you to temporarily hand over the fields involved in all these officials to the management of the Imperial Horse Supervisor?"

"When this matter is reported back to the capital, whether it is the township party or Qingliu, it will be impeached against you!"

"This is the will of Long Live and has nothing to do with the old man." Yang Lian stroked his beard, as if it was really as he said.

"Don't you think that with a long live will, you can cover up the past?" Zuo Guangdou got up angrily, walked around the main hall, and said anxiously:

"If these fields are given to the Imperial Horse Warden, then it will undoubtedly bring disaster upon you."

"It's a curse, but it's not our woe!" Yang Lian frowned in response, and explained:

"Giving the cultivated land of the rich households in Huai'an and Xuzhou to the Imperial Horse Supervisor is to lay a nail in Nanzhili."

"No matter how the relationship between Banzai and Zhejiang, Xuankun and the three parties changes after that, it is impossible to make peace with Emperor Shenzong and Shen from time to time!"

"Just to bury a nail, temporarily hand over these millions of acres of cultivated land to the supervision of Yuma?" Zuo Guangdou stepped forward to question Yang Lian, but Yang Lian also said:

"Lu Wenzhao has already conveyed the meaning of the Fifth Highness, that is, these millions of acres of cultivated land are no different from ordinary people's land, and they still need to pay field taxes and Liaoxiang!"

"But once we regret it in the future, we will regret it too late!" Zuo Guangdou was heartbroken, and he couldn't wait to beat his chest.

"In today's situation, there are no good options." Yang Lian responded with a cold face, and Zuo Guangdou could only sigh when he saw this:

"I hope that the Fifth Highness can match his words with deeds......"

"Naturally......" When Yang Lian heard this and nodded, his eyes couldn't help but darken.

He understood from the quarrel between Zuo Guangdou and himself, they are close friends, and there will be times when there are political discords, so what about the party?

He hesitated, and when he hesitated, Lu Wenzhao began to order people to go to Jiangnan to investigate with good news.

The people who went to investigate bore the brunt of it were the Shen Shen who made great contributions in Huaibei Yiyi.

He was promoted to the official of 100 households in Jinyi Weinan Town, and led 100 people to Nanzhili to investigate everyone who had anything to do with Huaibei.

As long as Gu Dazhang arrives at the interrogation on Pizhou's side, Lu Wenzhao will send the list of convicted people to Shen Lian, and he can start fishing further.

The fish in the south of the Yangtze River is so fat that it can only catch one net, which is enough for the imperial court to eat for several months......

What he Lu Wenzhao has to do is to sit on the boat of the Donglin Party to the opposite shore, and catch the big fish while taking the boat, and finally hand over the big fish to the two nobles on the other side.

At the same time, when he was planning to catch big fish, a majestic team of men and horses was practicing on the coastline of Shaoxing Mansion in Zhejiang Province.

There are a large number of them, looking from afar, a black and beautiful area, although the size is not comparable to the northern soldiers, but the courage in the eyes has been tempered.

This is the third generation of the Qi family's army, and it is also the soldier and horse trained by Qi Yuanfu, the third generation of the Qi family.

At this time, Qi Yuanfu was wearing a mountain armor in high spirits, standing on the edge of the beach, looking at the Qi family army training around the beach, his heart was full of pride, and he couldn't wait to yell at the sea.

How many years, how many years has their Qi family been low-key under the nose of Daming Wenchen, and now they are finally raising their eyebrows.

"General, a letter from the capital."

At this time, suddenly a staff general handed over a letter with good paper, and Qi Yuanfu, who heard the words, took the letter and hurriedly opened it.

This letter is from the Imperial Palace, and it is an order from the Emperor, but it has changed slightly from the previous order.

"How much silver do we have left?"

Suddenly, Qi Yuanfu asked the general, and after the general heard the words, he put his eyes on the strategist next to him, and when the strategist heard the words, he hurriedly said:

"Forty-five thousand three hundred and twenty-six twenty-seven dollars remaining."

"That's all there is to it?" Qi Yuanfu frowned slightly and sighed in his heart.

He went south this time and suffered a lot of troubles.

The emperor originally asked Nanzhili and Zhejiang to send him an additional 500,000 taels of silver to train his troops, but Nanzhili's military department and Zhejiang only gave him 100,000 taels, and the remaining 400,000 taels of silver, no matter what, they were not given.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and sell the last land in his family, and finally scraped together more than 145,000 taels of silver.

finally came to Zhejiang with the silver, but he didn't want the Zhejiang officials to embarrass him and hinder him from recruiting troops everywhere.

Fortunately, because Zhejiang has a large number of hidden populations, and there is no arable land and so many city jobs for them, Qi Yuanfu used the military salary of one or two or three dollars a month in Zhejiang to recruit people little by little.

He originally wanted to recruit men and horses slowly, and then train the troops honestly for a few months, and then ask the Nanzhili Military Department and the Household Department and the Zhejiang Chengxuan Political Envoy Department to transport the remaining 400,000 taels of silver when the army's salary was almost exhausted.

As a result, within two days, the emperor's will came down, and he directly asked him to train the troops and lead the troops to Nanjing and Yangzhou after training, and escorted the silver, autumn tax, and summer tax of the next year to Shuntian.

At that time, he was still happy, thinking that with the emperor's will, no one would dare to stop him anymore, so he accelerated the speed of recruitment, and in the first few days he recruited 8,000 people.

Originally, he wanted to train for another month, but now this letter disrupted his plans.

He had to take this untrained army to Nanzhili in advance, but this time it was not to go to the battlefield, and he was not afraid.

The only thing to worry about is that there is not enough silver, and after the silver is issued, can you still invite enough people.

"That's it, even if the silver is not enough, it will be enough to get to Nanjing!"

Thinking of this, Qi Yuanfu gritted his teeth and directly ordered:

"Order the whole army, after today's drill, each will receive five taels of silver, allow the soldiers to return home for three days, and the generals need to prepare all the needs of the march within three days, and at 18 o'clock in November, the army will march north!"