Poor Family Chapter 938

  Chapter 938 Criticism from the ruling and opposition parties

The death of Zeng Xiulin finally brought dust to this big case. Li Yanqing immediately ordered Zhao Kai to be responsible for cleaning up the property and silver in the Zeng family. Three days later, Zhao Kai took out a property inventory, and the wealth listed in it was jaw-dropping , can be called a wealthy country, Zeng Xiulin has seized hundreds of millions of wealth for the Zeng family during his ten years as the magistrate of Chengdu, and the income from monopolizing the three items of salt, wine and tea in just a dozen years has reached tens of millions of taels of silver as much.

In addition to a large amount of real estate and land, the Zeng family has thousands of shops, involving salt, tea, wine, grain, oil, cloth, silk, pig iron and other necessities for people's livelihood. Gambling halls, silver shops, inns, etc., as well as wharves, warehouses, fleets, motorcades, mines, etc., almost all the industries that make money in Chengdu Fulu have been involved in the Zeng family, and they are all top-notch big stores, even in the capital. Lin'an also has more than a dozen houses covering an area of ​​more than ten mu.

  Li Yanqing shook his head while looking at the list. No wonder Fan Zhixu told himself that the Song Dynasty was in financial difficulties, and it was difficult to support the military expenditure of hundreds of thousands of troops. Why were the finances difficult?

On the one hand, it was Zhao Ji's unrestrained profligacy, and on the other hand, a large number of officials like Zeng Xiulin who held local power unscrupulously took advantage of the loopholes in the system to profit for their own families. There were so many financial resources, most of which were cut away by local officials and given to the court. Naturally, there will be fewer. Of course, it is the common people who will be exploited in the end.

   "I didn't expect a magistrate to be so rich as an enemy. It's so surprising."

  Zhao Kai said with a smile on the side: "This is Chengdu Fulu, which has been prosperous for hundreds of years, and other places don't have so much oil and water."

   "I heard that many letters were copied out?" Li Yanqing put down the list and asked.

  Zhao Kai handed a thick stack of letters to Li Yanqing, "This is the letter written by the court ministers to Zeng Xiulin, and the main ones are here."

Li Yanqing took the letters, and the first one was a letter from Zuo Xiangguo Lu Yihao to Zeng Xiulin. He nodded. There were seven letters from Lu Yihao, which lasted for three years. financial support,

   Zeng Xiulin was able to sit in a seat for more than ten years without moving, and he must have paid a lot of real money for it.

   "Think about how to deal with these letters later?"

  Li Yanqing put away the letter, and continued to talk about the properties in the list, "What do you think should be done with these shops?" He asked Zhao Kai.

Zhao Kai thought for a while and said: "Except for docks, warehouses, fleets, convoys and mines, these assets should be managed by the government, and the rest of the shops will be auctioned openly. It is recommended to hand over the real estate to the Lin'an government for processing."

Li Yanqing pondered for a moment and said: "Divide the gold, silver, copper coins and auction proceeds from the search into two, and give half to the court. After all, the court's military expenses are also difficult, and the other half is used for the military expenses of the Northwest Third Road. We will disclose everything, and we are not afraid." The imperial court sent people to investigate."

   "I understand the humble job, so the next step is to discuss system reform?"

Li Yanqing smiled, "The reform of the sales system must be carried out, but it is best to invite the court to send high-ranking officials to participate. This matter involves too much interest. I need to write another letter to the official to try to get the official. support."

   "Understood, I have been fully busy with the auction during this period of time, and I will put aside the sale reform for the time being."

  Li Yanqing smiled slightly, "Then it will be hard work for Mr. Zhao!"

Three days later, Wang Gui led 10,000 cavalry to Chengdu. Li Yanqing mixed 10,000 cavalry and 10,000 newly recruited soldiers into an army of 20,000, and stationed them in the prefectures along Chengdu Fu Road. All of a sudden, everyone is guessing whether the envoy Li Yanqing will live in Chengdu for a long time in the future.

Unsurprisingly, Li Yanqing's actions in the Chengdu Mansion caused an uproar in the imperial court, and various criticisms of Li Yanqing became the focus of the imperial court. Logically, Li Yanqing was the envoy of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy and the highest military and political officer of the Bashu Three Routes. Of course, he has the right to intervene in government affairs, but it is rare to arrest the magistrate Zeng Xiulin. This kind of fierce official struggle has caused widespread dissatisfaction with Li Yanqing among the court civil servants. Even the Supreme Emperor Zhao Ji summoned the emperor Zhao Gou twice to put pressure on him. He ordered Li Yanqing to release him immediately and leave Bashu.

  At noon, in an elegant room in Qingfeng Building, Right Minister Fan Zhixu and Deputy Prime Minister Gao Shen sat and chatted. They said it was small talk, but in fact Fan Zhixu wanted to touch Li Yanqing's bottom line from Gao Shen.

   "Fan Xiang, I think the reaction to this incident is a bit weird."

  Fan Zhixu smiled slightly, "What's weird, let's hear it."

"It was my proposal that Li Yanqing be the envoy of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy. I did not intend to reduce his power. My original intention was to hope that he would also arrest the government affairs of the Bashu Third Road. The officials also had this attitude, but why did Li Yanqing finally You can only manage the military, but you can't interfere in government affairs. Whose order is this? Fan Xiang never mentioned it, and the officials didn't mean it?"

   "This should be proposed by Lu Xianggong, to reduce Li Yanqing's affairs and let him fight against the gold with all his strength. These are Lu Xianggong's original words. The officials also agreed in principle, but they have not formally formed a will."

   "This should be Zeng Xiulin's attitude!"

  Gao Shen sneered and said: "The envoy of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy is not allowed to interfere in government affairs, and the court is beyond his reach. He has really become the local emperor of Bashu."

   "Mr. Gao shouldn't be so extreme in his views on issues! The key is that Li Yanqing doesn't have time himself. Judging from his performance, he seems to be more interested in the political affairs of Hedong Road."

"The problem now is the court's attitude. For such an obvious big case, many people in the court criticized Li Yanqing at the court meeting, saying that he stretched his hand too far. It seems that these critics have forgotten that Li Yanqing is an envoy of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy. , Zeng Xiulin is his subordinate, isn't it normal for the superior to investigate the responsibility of the subordinate? He levied 3.8 million yuan in taxes without authorization and filled his own pockets, and the evidence is conclusive. These people turned a blind eye to such a serious case and blamed Li Yanqing for managing it. Too many, isn't this weird, who is supporting them?"

   Gao Shen's tone was very severe, and Fan Zhixu could only give a wry smile. There was no way to explain this kind of thing, but both of them knew in their hearts who was supporting Zeng Xiulin, who else but the Supreme Emperor?

Fan Zhixu had already vaguely guessed that this matter was actually a struggle between the Supreme Emperor and the officials for the control of Bashu. The Supreme Emperor first win over Zeng Xiulin, and Li Yanqing must be carrying out the instructions of the officials to bring down Zeng Xiulin. Now that Zeng Xiulin has been arrested, The Supreme Emperor was of course angry and anxious.

  Fan Zhixu pondered for a moment and said: "I guess this matter has already come to fruition. If we wait patiently, Zhang Yushi's memorial should be delivered soon."

  The two had a sip of tea. At this time, an attendant reported at the door: "To the two ministers, Zhizheng Hall sent an urgent message saying that there is an urgent memorial from Bashu. Please go back immediately."

  Fan Zhixu and Gao Shen looked at each other, they stood up almost at the same time, the result of the Bashu struggle finally came.

  The Zhizheng Hall has a solemn atmosphere, the six prime ministers are sitting in a stately state, and the report sent by Zhang Yushi from Chengdu is in the hands of Zheng Wangzhi, who is the last person to read the report.

   Of course Yushitai is not responsible to Zhizhengtang, they submit reports directly to the emperor, but if the report involves important officials of the imperial court, they usually send a copy to Zhizhengtang while reporting to the emperor.

   "What do you guys think about this?"

Fan Zhixu was the first to speak. He asked very levelly, not what he thought of the report. The report was the result of Yushitai's investigation, and they should not question it. So Fan Zhixu just asked Zeng Xiulin about this. thing.

   Lu Yihao sighed, "It's true that you know people, face, but not heart! I always thought that Zeng Xiulin was a clean and honest person, but how could I expect him to be so good! I want to apologize to the emperor, I misjudged the person."

Lu Yihao expressed his position in a timely manner. Everyone knows that he is Zeng Xiulin's backer. If he doesn't get rid of himself as soon as possible, once this matter is fermented in the court, he may be involved. After all, the evidence is convincing and the person is dead. It will protect a dead person, without the protection of the Supreme Emperor, Zeng Xiulin's case will drown many people.

  Gao Shen sneered and said: "There are still people criticizing Li Jinglue for meddling in today's court meeting. If Li Jinglue hadn't resisted the pressure to investigate this case, I am afraid that the Zeng family would really become the richest man in the world."

The profound sarcasm made Lu Yihao and Fan Zongyin's faces very embarrassed. Fan Zhixu quickly coughed twice and changed the topic, "The problem now is how to deal with the follow-up? One is a large amount of money and property, and the other is the new magistrate of the city. , and the other one is whether to investigate this case in depth? These three things are to be done next, please express your opinion! I will summarize it and report it to the world as the opinions of our Zhizheng Hall."

  Fan Zhixu smiled at Gao Shen: "Mr. Gao, let's talk first!"

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end