Chapter 57 That’s all my money!

When the words Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture came out of Yan Shaoting's mouth.

Xu Jie finally felt a heavy weight in his heart.

His gaze became a little vague, and he looked several times at Yan Shaoting who was taking out a document from his arms.

But Yan Shaoting had already opened the document in his arms.

These were the things about Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture that Yan Hu and Lu Yi brought to him on his way from the Cabinet to Xiyuan.

The memorials from Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui have also been sent to the capital today, and will soon appear before the Taoist priest's eyes.

Yan Shaoting's voice was heard in the empty Yuxi Palace.

"Your Majesty, Suzhou Prefecture has more than 600,000 hectares of official and private fields. The fields in Songjiang Prefecture account for one-fourth of those in Suzhou Prefecture.

Last year, Songjiang Prefecture donated more than 30,000 dan of rice, 25,000 taels of silver, and 30,000 pieces of broad white cloth to the imperial treasury.

More than 52,000 taels of silver were sent to the Ministry of Revenue's Taicang warehouse, more than 320,000 dan of grain and 34,000 taels of silver were sent to the Ministry of Revenue's Jingtong warehouse, and 15,000 dan of grain and 11,000 taels of silver were sent to the prefectural government offices.

Twenty-four thousand dan of grain and rice were sent to the Guanglu Temple, which cost fourteen thousand taels of silver.

Send 8,000 taels of silver to the Ministry of Works and 1,000 taels to the Ministry of Rites."

These are the data archived by the Ministry of Revenue and Xiyuan. In Songjiang Prefecture alone, the imperial court collected 400,000 shi of grain and more than 100,000 taels of silver every year.

The reason why Songjiang Prefecture has such heavy taxes all started from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.

The area around Nanzhili has been an important tax collection area for the imperial court since the founding of the country.

But no one understood why Yan Shaoting suddenly explained the various taxes of Songjiang Prefecture in such detail at this time.

Just when Jiajing was about to ask a question in confusion.

Yan Shaoting took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "Yes, according to the investigation of the Jinyiwei, there are hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in Songjiang Prefecture alone, and no taxes have been paid and no corvée has been performed. In Suzhou Prefecture, there are millions of acres of farmland, and no taxes or corvée has been performed.

This time, Zhang Ge Lao implemented the national policy of converting cotton to mulberry in Suzhou and Songjiang prefectures. Tens of thousands of cotton farmers planted cotton seedlings in advance to defy the court's decree. Most of their hundreds of thousands of acres of flour land were not included in the country's taxes and labor service.

The Jinyiwei estimated that the deficit from this item alone could reach more than 100,000 shi of rice and tens of thousands of taels of silver each year.

If we start counting from the first year of Jiajing, the deficit could reach 4 million shi of grain and 1 million taels of silver.”

You are farting!

I didn't hide so much money and grain!
Xu Jie almost shouted these two sentences. If it weren't for his years of practice, he would have shown panic at this moment.

But he still looked at Yan Shaoting with a surprised look.

However, in Yuxi Palace, there was deathly silence.

Everyone could clearly feel that a surge of anger was brewing rapidly.

That was the anger from Emperor Jiajing above.

Yan Shaoting, however, had a calm expression.

Everything he said was true. Even when Jiajing received the memorial sent back by Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui later, it also stated these things.

But he only expanded this account to the first year of Jiajing at the end.

Therefore, the amount of money and grain deficit needs to be calculated in millions.

Just a little calculation.

"Okay!"

Suddenly, a somewhat sharp voice was heard.

This woke up the people who were thinking about something, and they looked at Yan Shifan who made the sound.

Yan Shifan sneered at this moment: "I wonder why Zhang Juzheng, as a cabinet minister, exercised the power of an imperial envoy and went to Suzhou Prefecture for many days, but he couldn't even handle the small matter of changing cotton to mulberry! Why did the cotton farmers plant the cotton seedlings before Zhang Juzheng arrived!"

Yuxi Palace was filled with Yan Shifan's mocking voice.

Then, he looked straight at Xu Jie and Gao Gong, and said in a cold voice: "Now it is finally clear! Someone is competing with the court for money and grain! Someone is afraid that the court's change from cotton to mulberry will damage their interests!"

now.

Yan Shifan's voice was so harsh.

It stabbed Xu Jie's heart deeply.

However, Yan Shifan did not stop there. He looked straight at Jiajing, clasped his fists and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty! Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui only stayed in Suzhou for a short period of time, and they found so many problems.

But I firmly believe that the problems in Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture will never stop here!
If we look at the accounts that we have just checked, I am afraid that since the first year of Jiajing, when Your Majesty ascended the throne, the two prefectures have lost no less than tens of millions of dollars in money and grain!"

Based on Yan Shaoting's calculations, Yan Shifan raised the figure to the order of tens of millions.

Even Yan Shaoting couldn't help but admire him in his heart.

The young cabinet is so generous!
however.

It was also as Yan Shifan increased this bad debt to the order of tens of millions.

The anger that had been accumulated in Yuxi Palace finally burst out like a tide in an instant.

"You're deceiving the heavens!"

"money!"

"My money!"

"They took no less than 10 million!"

"I still have to find merchants to borrow food to help the people!"

In Yuxi Palace, there seemed to be the roar of tigers and the howling of dragons.

Jiajing was furious, his hair stood on end, his eyes were bloodshot, and he waved his hands angrily, sweeping everything on the table in front of him to the ground.

He pressed his hands heavily on the table, staring at the cabinet ministers in front of him with gritted teeth.

The emperor was completely furious.

The huge deficit made Jiajing so angry that he almost set the Yuxi Palace on fire.

Facing Jiajing's wrath, Yan Song, Xu Jie and others knelt on the ground.

After venting his anger, Jiajing began to pace back and forth.

He suddenly turned around and looked at Yan Shaoting who was still standing there.

"Yan Shaoting!"

Yan Shaoting immediately raised his eyebrows and bowed with his fists clasped.

"Wei Chen is here."

"check!"

Jiajing squeezed out a word of anger from his throat, staring at Yan Shaoting with lightning eyes: "Investigate! Investigate thoroughly for me! No matter who it is, find out for me!"

Xu Jie buried his entire head in the ground.

When I heard that the emperor wanted to investigate the matter thoroughly, my heart was in knots.

At this time, Lu Fang had already received the memorial from Hai Rui, which was urgently sent from the previous dynasty over a distance of 800 miles.

Lu Fang quickly looked through it, then walked cautiously to Jiajing's side and whispered, "Master, there are no mistakes or omissions in what the Jinyiwei found and what Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui found."

Yan Shaoting glanced at Xu Jie who was kneeling on the ground without being noticed.

"I accept the decree."

As Yan Shaoting spoke, Xu Jie's heart sank again.

If I let Yan Shaoting investigate the affairs of Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture, wouldn't I be walking into a tiger's mouth? What good outcome would I have in the end?

But just when Xu Jie was racking his brains, thinking about how to suppress the matter or take the right to investigate the case away from Yan Shaoting.

Yan Shaoting said, "It's just that Your Majesty... Zhejiang Province is hit by a disaster, and Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture cannot switch from cotton to mulberry for a long time, so it is difficult to implement national policies.

Shouldn't we put national policy first? Whether it's the disaster in Zhejiang or the issue of land in Suzhou and Songjiang, it seems that we can take this opportunity to increase silk production in the southeast and market it overseas?"

Xu Jie, with his heart in his throat, glanced at Yan Shaoting with surprise.

The Yan Party actually stopped doing anything to take advantage of others’ misfortune?

Could it be that he has changed his temperament?

(End of this chapter)