Considering that it was not an overnight thing to promote the rebellion against Wu Sangui, Wang Wu finally gave Lao Zhang 30,000 taels for Yanjing activities, and if there are dates, there will be a few strokes to hit it first.

However, the 30,000 taels are not cash silver, but let Lao Zhang deduct from the project money in the city.

Lao Zhang was so angry that he scolded Wang Wurat's eyes, don't you know the truth that the child can't hold the wolf.

Wu Sangui is not opposed, these things you did in Jingzhou will be poked out sooner or later, and then the king of heaven and Lao Tzu will not be able to save you.

After scolding, he ordered his cronies to bring 5,000 taels into Beijing for activities, and gave Wang Wu 30,000 taels to his side.

The contract for the construction of Mancheng is presided over by Jin Guansan, and the current participants in the construction of the project are the brother-in-law Wang of Guizhou Xia Zhizhou, the cousin Song of Wang Tailai, and the nephew of Lao Zhang.

According to the progress of the project, Wang Wu awarded the boundary wall project and related earthworks to Zhang's nephew Zhang;

gave the construction of military facilities and related barracks in the city to Xia Zhizhou's brother-in-law Wang;

He also handed over the sewage project of the city, the decoration project of the government office, and the construction of the turret to Song, the cousin of Wang Tailai, the general manager of Qian.

He did not contract specific projects for others, let alone make profits from them, but asked Wuchang to first release the project money to him, and then he allocated the relevant funds according to the progress of the project.

It's just that Lao Zhang's project money has been delayed for a long time, not that Lao Zhang intends to delay the progress of the project, but that the Yanjing Household Department has not allocated funds in time, and the silver in the domain of the Governor's Yamen has been looted by Wang Wu, resulting in Lao Zhang not being able to raise too much silver in the short term.

The 300,000 taels raised earlier are still the military expenses that have been diverted, and it is a trivial matter that this matter is not exposed, and once it is exposed, it will be difficult to tell.

As a last resort, he had no choice but to go to the Yamen of the Governor of Huguang, the Yamen of Biyuan, and the Yamen of Yunyang, and asked each Yamen to raise no less than 200,000 taels of project funds in advance.

The Biyuan (Hunan) side is better, Huguang and Yunyang are directly responsible for the Xishan war, and the taxes collected in the past three years are basically consumed in the Xishan war except for handing over to the imperial court.

In particular, the five provinces and eight prefectures under the jurisdiction of Yunyang are even poorer, and the population is not as good as that of a Jingzhou prefecture, and whether it is military expenditure or the operating expenses of the officials and yamen, they all have to rely on the "co-payment" from above, and they simply cannot afford the transfer payment of 200,000 taels for the project.

Wuchang regarded the construction project of Mancheng as the top priority this year, and Zhang Changgeng even sent two consecutive messages to Yunyang, urging why the payment had not been paid for a long time.

Hu Quancai, the governor of Yunyang, was a jinshi during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, and was the head of the military department in the Chongzhen Dynasty.

He served as the governor of Shaanxi Hanqiang Road, promoted to the governor of Ningxia, and was later recommended by Hong Chengchou to conquer Hunan, govern Yunyang, and supervise military affairs.

It's a Futai lord who is both civil and military and has a bit of a temper.

Hu Yu Yunyang governor has been in office for nine years, longer than Zhang Changgeng, the governor of Huguang, and although the governor is one level lower than the governor, but not a direct subordinate of the governor, so Hu Quancai angrily played the imperial court and said that Jingzhou Mancheng needs two million taels of silver, according to the experience of building Mancheng in various places, it is only necessary to move the Han people to whom the Mancheng area belongs and build an additional boundary wall in the city.

If you are full of calculations, it will take less than 500,000 taels.

The implication is that there is obviously a problem with the cost of the project, there may be corruption, and it is not even ruled out that the officials colluded to deceive the imperial court.

The spearhead was directed at Zhang Changgeng.

This frightened Lao Zhang, and he hurriedly submitted a copy of the Mancheng construction plan and related budget cost list approved by Wang Wu to Yanjing for the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Industry for review.

He also pointed out that Jiangning, Xi'an, Hangzhou and other cities consumed less than one million taels of silver when they were built, because these places were originally important towns of the Ming Dynasty, with strong walls and relatively complete facilities in the city.

At the beginning of the Jingzhou city, the soldiers of Jingzhou fought two battles of Jingzhou with the loyal battalion of the Ming army, which led to serious damage to the city wall and even more incomplete facilities in the city.

In the seventh year of Shunzhi, the Yangtze River flood once flooded two-thirds of the city, which led to the construction of Jingzhou City from scratch, and Jingzhou is an important town in Huguang, controlling the Yangtze River, which is extremely important militarily, and there is something in the future that Jingzhou can block the enemy in Jiangnan, so it is necessary to build a large number of military facilities, which naturally leads to an increase in expenditure.

Although the excerpt does not clearly refer to what will happen in the future, and what enemy will block the enemy in Jiangnan, none of the senior officials in the Yanjing court can see who he is referring to.

Ao Bai was the first to see Zhang Changgeng's performance.

He asked the Ministry of Industry Shangshu Jishi, the Ministry of Household Shangshu Marse, and the Ministry of War Shangshu Ka Chuha to find and ask the three of them whether the cost of Jingzhou Mancheng was appropriate, and Hu Quancai, the governor of Yunyang, pointed out that the cost was suspected of false and lied about whether it was possible.

The most vocal in this regard must be the Ministry of Industry.

After Huguang sent the list of plans and budgets for the construction of Jingzhou's Mancheng City, the Ministry of Industry organized relevant officials to calculate it, and finally concluded that if it was built according to this plan, the maximum amount of silver would not exceed 1.5 million taels.

However, the cost reported by Huguang is as high as 2.6 million taels, an increase of 1.1 million taels, so it cannot be ruled out that there is a problem with this cost.

"In other words, Zhang Changgeng overreported 1.1 million taels to the imperial court?"

Ao Bai frowned, since he took charge of the government alone, he has attached more importance to the rule of officials, emphasizing that corruption must be severely punished, that is, it will not be tolerated, and if one is found, one will be arrested, and one will be killed, so that these officials left behind by the former Ming Dynasty can do things for the Qing Dynasty with their hearts and minds.

Therefore, it was planned to send two envoys to each province to set up a special envoy yamen next to the governor's office, and to allow officials and ordinary people from all over the country to go to the envoy to expose and report.

Once the revelation was found to be true, the provincial Qincha immediately detained the person and sent him to the Yanjing Ministry to be imprisoned.

At present, eight people have been sent to the four provinces of Beizhili, Shandong, Henan, and Jiangnan.

It is planned to send additional envoys to Huguang, Liangguang, Fujian, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Shanxi, and other provinces before the end of the year, and strive to make the punishment of the envoys a system within three years.

Aobai means that the rank of the cha sent to the provinces is not lower than that of the local governor, with an independent yamen, independent case-handling personnel, and directly reporting to the auxiliary ministers.

However, it does not interfere in local military and government affairs, and only supervises all officials, including governors.

The system is very good and very effective, that is, it is like an extra mother-in-law for local officials, and once this system is formed, it is equivalent to an additional channel for auxiliary ministers to hold local governors hostage outside the imperial court, so there is a lot of resistance in the implementation process, but under the iron-fisted means of worship, it will be a matter of this year or next year.

If Zhang Changgeng did overreport more than one million taels of construction money to the imperial court, Ao Bai would definitely send someone to Huguang to investigate, even if Zhang Changgeng secretly submitted a "letter of nomination" to him Ao Shaobao, such a huge greed should not be tolerated.

The military department's Shangshu Kachuha put forward his own view, that is, the project cost has always been unfixed and the budget has fluctuated greatly, and there are many reasons for this, such as corruption and misappropriation by the officials in charge of the project, but more often it is the fluctuation of local prices, and some unexpected situations encountered in the construction of the project will lead to an increase in the project cost.

"Jingzhou can help Chengdu, Jiangning, Hangzhou, and south to Guangdong-Guizhou outpost, the importance of this place is not lower than Jiangning, Xi'an, and it is inevitable that I will not adapt to the garrison flag soldiers after they are stationed."

Kachuha pointed out from the actual situation that the project cost may be more than the Ministry of Works' accounting, after all, many things are not within the scope of normal calculations.

Especially Jingzhou is facing the west, in case Wu Sangui raises troops to rebel, a strong and strong Jingzhou city is a nail to block the Wu army from the north, from a military sense, it is better to spend more silver than to be easily captured by the Wu army at that time.

"I'm in one day, Wu Sangui doesn't dare."

Ao Bai was inexplicably confident, and always thought that as long as he was there, Wu Sangui, a rich man, would not dare to lead the army to rebel against the Qing Dynasty if he borrowed ten more dares.

However, after Ka Chuha said this, his heart couldn't help but relax, and he turned to ask how much silver could be squeezed out by the head of the household department Shangshu Marse for the construction of Jingzhou's full city.

Marse smiled bitterly and said that the original payment for Jingzhou to build a full city was only more than 600,000 taels, but now the cost of the city has doubled, and the household department can only make up to 800,000 taels at most, and there is nothing more that can be done.

He also said that such a large project and such a high cost, even for the future, it is necessary to send personnel to Jingzhou to supervise it, so as to prevent someone from enriching his own pockets.

After pondering for a while, Ao Bai ordered the left deputy capital Yu Shi Moluo to go to Jingzhou to supervise the construction of the city.

Mo Luo used to be a member of the Ministry of Engineering, and he was most aware of the cats in engineering construction, and he was a party of worship, so he could rest assured.

In addition, let the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of War each send a person in charge to follow Moluo to Jingzhou, so that the project must be built clearly.

I was going to press Hu Quancai's fold, but I didn't want Wang Xi, the imperial history of Zuodu, to know that Hu Quancai was in the book, and he also wrote: "Directly save money and grain, half of which is consumed by Yungui and Huguang's soldiers." As far as Yun Guiyan is concerned, the province needs to provide more than 3 million taels of annual salaries for the officers and soldiers under the domain, and more than 2 million taels for the soldiers of Huguang, and the tax retained by the province is less than one tithe (one-tenth), which is difficult to endure for a long time. ”

In the excerpt, it is not said that it is wrong for Jingzhou to build a full city, but it is only said that if this continues to be spent everywhere, the financial resources of the provinces will be scarce, and the country will be difficult to operate.

However, Huguang's military salary had to be paid, because the Western Mountain thieves had not yet been pacified.

So where do you need to cut it?

It is a noble place.

However, Wu Sangui reported that there were border troubles in Yunnan in the imperial court, and there was a rebellion by the Tusi An clan in Shuixi, and the soldier's salary could not be reduced but increased.

Ao Bai thought about repeatedly not cutting the salary of Yungui soldiers, nor did he cut the salary of Huguang soldiers, but asked the military department to issue a few new official documents for the transfer of generals.

ordered Zhao Liangdong, the chief soldier of Guangluo, Yunnan, to be the chief military officer of Bila, Guizhou;

Liu Zhifu, the chief officer of the right battalion of Yunnan's "loyal and brave", is the chief officer of Guizhou Dafang;

Li Rubi, the former commander-in-chief of the Yunnan "Loyal and Brave" battalion, is the commander-in-chief of Shuixi, Guizhou;

Wang Hui, the chief military officer of the Yunnan "Volunteer Yong" middle battalion, is the chief military officer of Guangluo;

Ta Xince, the chief military officer of the "loyal and brave" rear battalion, is the chief military officer of Dingguang, Guizhou.

These people, along with Ma Ning and Yan Ziming, who had been transferred out of Yunnan before, were all important generals of the Wu Sangui group, and all of them were transferred from Yunnan to Guizhou this time, although Guizhou was still under the jurisdiction of Wu Sangui, but in fact Wu Sangui's forces were dispersed again.

The ultimate goal of Ao Bai was to remove the second battalion of Zhongyong and Yiyong under the name of Wu Sangui.

In Jingzhou, although the project money could not be paid in time, Wang Wu still asked the relevant contractors to start construction immediately.

The problem is that there is no silver, how can this work be moved?

According to the rules of the past, the yamen requisitioned people who did not need money to use as free labor, but now because Wang Wu demanded that people should not be forcibly recruited, the contractor needs to change to hire workers.

That is, to pay wages to the young men who participated in the construction of the city.

This makes the project contractor suffer.

Because they didn't receive any money for the project at all, let's make their own advances, who has so much money to advance?

was in a dilemma, so they had to complain to the "owners" behind them.

Xia Zhizhou and Wang Qian, who returned to the state, were too low, so they didn't dare to slap the table with Wang Dutong and stare at him, so they could only quietly come over and ask Lord Dutong to think of a way, so that he could open some money and start construction again.

Wuchang Lao Zhang was silent, in fact, he had to allocate the money, and he had no money to allocate the problem, so he had to wait.

It will take a month to say the least, that is, after the summer tax comes up.

In the past, because he urged Hu Quancai, the governor of Yunyang, to give money, he was directly sued by people in Yanjing, saying that he Zhang Changgeng lied about the cost of the project.

"A penny is hard to beat a hero."

Wang Wu can also understand the contractor's distress, the money, he personally has hundreds of thousands of taels, the question is how can he take it out to advance money for the Qing court.

Although the money was originally from the Qing court.

But when it entered the pockets of his king's capital, the money was surnamed Wang.

Isn't it stupid to take it out again?

Is this hair so easy to shave?

But the project has to be carried out again, and we can't just sprinkle some lime and plant some red flags.

The city is full of cities, and you have to repair a city gate.

If you don't move anything, you really can't explain it.

After thinking about it, he came up with an idea for Xia Zhizhou and Wang Qian, that is, to let them divide the projects they contracted into several or a dozen projects and contract them.

For example, a section of the city wall is three miles long, and you can't repair it personally, so you divide this section of the city wall into ten packages for others to repair, and the profits are sufficient, but these subcontractors have to advance their own funds to repair first, and then receive the project payment after the completion of the bid section.

This method is undoubtedly a good way to solve the problem, just like a project of 500,000 taels is hard for one person, ten people for 10 people, and 20 people for it.

Together, we're united.

In these years, who has the ability to participate in the major engineering projects of the imperial court?

It must be a gentry and a strong man, or an official.

Xia Zhizhou and Wang Qian were still a little confused, obviously worried that if the project money did not come down after the completion of the project, they would become big debtors.

Wang Wu spoke: "What are you afraid of? As long as there is the imperial court and the Qing Dynasty, are you afraid that no one will settle this account? ”

gave the two of them a reassurance, and the contract was issued by the government.

As long as there is an official government, there is no fear of running out of money.

Xia and Wang thought about it carefully, and they couldn't do it if they didn't do it, so they went back to subcontract right away.

After the two "contractors" including Jin Guansan, the "deputy commander-in-chief" of the project, left, they hesitated and raised a worry: "My lord, what if the money is not in place?" ”

"Then you owe it."

Wang Wu replied very simply.

"This?"

Kim Do-tae's skull hurts a little.

"Kim, you have to understand that everyone owes me money, and everyone wants me to die; But if I owe everybody money, everybody wants me to live a long life. ”

Wang Wu glanced at Jin Guansan meaningfully, "You offended Lao Zhang, this platform will definitely not work, follow me in the future, don't think about anything else, I can't eat and drink." ”