Guan Huaigong followed King Qin out of the back kitchen of Jiangnan Tower, and heard Zhu Xiang who was walking in front suddenly ask.
The young official had some doubts in his eyes, not knowing which one he was asking about.
Zhu Ming glared at Guan Huaigong indifferently: "The menu at Jiangnan Restaurant is really dazzling. I have rarely seen it in these years. Did you remember it all just now?"
Guan Huaigong was stunned for a moment: "Back to the prince, I guess I have remembered everything except the tea."
Zhu Xi nodded: "You remember how many taels of silver a dish costs, right?"
At this time, Guan Huaigong was stunned again.
He originally thought that King Qin wanted him to remember the name of the dish, but later he did the same thing himself.
Little did he know that Prince Qin actually asked him about the price of vegetables.
Guan Huaigong nodded: "This Jiangnan Restaurant is quite interesting, and the food prices are easy to remember."
Can you remember it easily?
If it's either a hair or a straight, there are just a few fixed ones on the left and right.
Thinking of this, Guan Huaigong felt a little sad. These officials in Yangzhou City really lived a good life. It's no wonder that the officials in Yangzhou City owned the Lianghuai Salt Fields, which was the highest in the entire Ming Dynasty.
First class rich place.
We need to talk to the governor about this matter later, and maybe we can dig out a large number of corrupt officials from here.
A meal like this costs hundreds of taels of silver. How can we not be greedy for money on weekdays?
I don’t know where the officials in Yangzhou City got the confidence to hold such a banquet today.
Zhu Xi just snorted and said nothing.
The two quickly entered the top floor of the main building of Jiangnan Building.
Jiangnan Building is very tall and spacious, with five tables on the top floor.
All in all, it can also accommodate the high-ranking officials in Yangzhou City.
At this time, the Yangzhou officials had not yet arrived, so Zhu Xi stood by the window and looked at the canal in the distance.
Although maritime transport has developed rapidly in recent years and its scale has become larger and larger, the canal, which has been operating for hundreds of years, still has an irreplaceable role and value.
On the river, there was an endless stream of official ships and merchant ships going south and north, and the huge sails seemed to have completely covered the river surface.
People were also coming and going on the official roads on both sides of the canal. Countless horse-drawn carriages and merchants and pedestrians were rushing in and out for the transportation of resources and economic exchanges in the Ming Dynasty.
A day laborer earns about fifty cash a day.
This is the more common labor price in the southern Zhili area today.
Private workshops and private businessmen have to offer such wages, otherwise the people will have to go to government-run workshops or try their best to work on government projects.
This was an outcome that the imperial court did not expect after initially considering allowing the people to earn some money.
It is actually possible to influence private employment through government means.
But this also made the court and cabinet understand one thing.
That is to say, to a large extent, the government does not need to use official documents and government expenditures to increase people's income as in the past.
A new model began to quietly rise to the cabinet's long-term agenda. In the current Hongwu New Deal, the imperial court began to try to use the administrative power of the government to influence and guide civilian employment, to regulate and increase the people's work income.
Zhu Yunxi didn't know about this matter.
If he had known about it, he would have been surprised and lamented that the Ming Dynasty had already begun to experiment with the government's regulation of the private economy without any guidance.
But Zhu Ping, who was standing in Jiangnan Tower at the moment, didn't have so many thoughts.
He simply felt that the lively and busy scene he saw in front of him was so satisfying.
Isn't this more fulfilling than fighting a cricket with a horse and a bird?
But some people don't want to have such a happy scene.
So here he is.
He wants to preside over a fair event in Yangzhou City.
The officials from various yamen in Yangzhou city did not keep His Highness the King of Qin and the superior officials from the governor's yamen in central Beijing waiting long.
The trend in southern Zhili has been very bad recently, and everyone is in danger.
The King of Qin couldn't just do it for the evaluation of officials. Such a trivial matter only requires a visit from the superior officer of the governor's office.
To be able to bring King Qin, the God of Killing, to come over, there must be something up his sleeve.
This is also why Yangzhou City went to war this time and entertained Zhu Fang and others at the Jiangnan Tower with high standards.
When a group of red-robed and green-robed officials in Yangzhou City walked into the Jiangnan Tower and climbed to the top floor, Zhu Ping's eyes swept over everyone who arrived.
The green-headed flies in Yangzhou City are not yet qualified to go to the top floor, so they are all on the floors below, waiting for Prince Qin and the governor's Yamen officials.
A group of people, including the salt transshipment envoys of the Huaidu and Huaihe Rivers, the governor of water transport, the prefect of Yangzhou, and others stood in front of Zhu Ping with respectful expressions.
Here, the magistrate of Yangzhou is naturally the host, and the salt transshipment envoy of the Huaidu and Huaidus, the transshipment envoy, has the highest official position.
However, when the two people and the people behind them bowed and prepared to salute.
Zhu Ping coughed slightly and raised his hand to stop these people.
Everyone was puzzled. It was stopped before the opening remarks and introductions even started. It seemed something was wrong.
But Zhu Xi had already spoken: "I received an errand from the prince to go to Yangzhou. Therefore, the errand is the most important thing, and naturally I am not in the mood to listen to your polite words."
This is already a bit serious.
The atmosphere was brought to a freezing point right from the start.
It's just that Zhu Xi was the King of Qin in the Ming Dynasty, and he was also the clan killer.
No one dared to say anything, and seeing that Zhu Xi didn't speak, they could only stand there.
Guan Huai glanced at Zhu Xi with some doubts, wondering what the trouble was about.
At this time, there was a noise outside Jiangnan Tower.
Some people are shouting, mainly shouting about injustice.
At intervals, some people were warning the people who were complaining in cold voices.
The sound was very noisy, as if there were many people downstairs.
At this time, Zhu Xi looked at the Yangzhou officials present with a mysterious face: "Let's all go and have a look. Each one will receive one. Which yamen they are from."
As soon as these words came out, everyone present was shocked again.
As soon as Prince Qin entered Yangzhou City, he took people first.
Everyone already had some warning in their minds. After a period of silence and hesitation, the Lianghuai Transfer Envoy, Yangzhou Magistrate and others still followed Zhu Ping's words and went to the window sill on the side and looked down.
It's okay not to look at it, but everyone was shocked again when they saw it.
I saw that the entire Jiangnan downstairs was already overcrowded.
The officers and soldiers of the Yulin Guards and the Jinyi Guards who followed Zhu Ping into Yangzhou, with the cooperation of the tax soldiers of the Yangzhou Prefecture Tax Department, had already escorted a large group of officials from various yamen downstairs.
The Lianghuai Transfer Envoy and the Yangzhou Magistrate looked at each other silently. While they were shocked, they also distinguished who were the officials from each department downstairs.
They were all the former Governor-General's Yamen who presided over the examination of Zhili officials, and there were government officials in the Yangzhou prefecture who were absent from the examination for various reasons.
"Your Majesty, this..."
The Lianghuai transfer envoy looked a little ugly, bowed his head and glanced at Zhu Xi.
When he heard that Zhu Ping was coming to the city today and wanted to treat them as guests, he had some speculation that today's meal would not be very appetizing.
Even, this is a Hongmen Banquet.
But he didn't expect that when they came over, they not only didn't have the chance to tell their families and names, but now they took away so many officials from the Yangzhou government in front of them.
When did this happen?
Thinking of the tax collectors downstairs, the transfer between the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River made me a little worried.
Since the imperial court established the tax bureau, set up tax bureaus and organized tax soldiers at the local level, the local area has often become embarrassed.
The first is the local finance, which was stripped away at once, and everything was in the hands of the local tax department. On weekdays, when the government wants to do something and needs some money, it not only has to ask for approval from the Ministry of Revenue or the Chief Envoy as in the past
You have to go to the tax department to ask for money just like grandpa.
That’s not all.
The most important thing is that the people from the tax department cannot be bribed at all!
Those people don't seem to see money in their eyes.
The most irritating thing was that not only did the gang detain the person who sent the money and hand it over directly to the Jin Yiwei, they also recorded the money in the tax department's account and handed it over to the Accounts Department.
If that's all it is, it's pretty good.
The most uncomfortable thing for the local government now is that as long as they have some evil intentions, these tax department people really dare to come and ransack your home.
These people's excuses are extremely righteous.
They didn't know if there was anyone else behind the person who sent the money, but since the person who sent the money could send so much money, there must be something wrong with him.
The Taxation Department of the Taxation Department is responsible for the world's taxes, and naturally has the power to investigate the assets of local lawbreakers.
A home search is a means of checking assets.
The transfer between the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River made my heart suddenly feel heavy.
Obviously, when Prince Qin entered Yangzhou this time, he must have notified the Yangzhou Taxation Department in advance, and asked these people to target the officials in the yamen in advance, and just wait for him to enter the city today and take him here.
.
Zhu Xi just smiled and said: "I heard that there were many absentees in the official assessment of the 18th Prefecture of Zhili. This time I came to Yangzhou for this matter. I didn't know it beforehand.
After receiving the errand, I realized that Yangzhou Prefecture is really good. There are 562 officials in each department, and 479 of them were absent from the exam. I also saw the reasons for the absence from the Governor's Yamen.
, it seems that many people are unwell or busy with official duties."
When Zhu Xi presented the data, all the Yangzhou officials present turned pale.
It would make sense if one or two people used physical discomfort or official duties to cope with the official evaluation.
When nearly 500 of the nearly 600 officials in Yangzhou Prefecture use these reasons to miss the exam, it is really unjustifiable.
It can even be said that this is intentional.
Although all the 17 prefectures of Zhili Province used similar reasons this time, Yangzhou Prefecture was the most exaggerated, with the largest number of absentees and the largest proportion.
Yangzhou officials were speechless.
But Zhu Ping had a lot to say.
He snorted and said calmly: "Before I came here this time, I told the junior officials that I was here to preside over fairness. This time, there were so many absences from the official assessment of Yangzhou Prefecture, either because of health reasons or because of official duties.
I have been thinking about it for a long time. I have been thinking about it all night long. I thought about it for a long time before I came up with a reason. I don’t know if you think this is the case."
As Zhu Ping spoke, his eyes swept over everyone present deeply.
No one dared to speak.
Who knows what His Highness, King Qin, will say next moment.
Zhu Ping tilted his head and glanced at Guan Huaigong with a smile.
Guan Huaigong was a little confused and didn't know what this man's look meant.
And Zhu Xi had already spoken: "I feel that you, the chief officials, must have treated the yamen officials too harshly. You are using them like donkeys. Otherwise, how could so many people miss the exam?"
What the hell is the reason for this?
Guan Huaigong couldn't help but cursed secretly in his heart. He knew that this man could not speak serious words.
It would be better for me to tell the governor at that time and just do what the governor's office did in other prefectures and counties and directly investigate and convict these officials who were absent from the examination one by one.
The Lianghuai Transfer Envoy, Yangzhou Magistrate and others present also looked confused.
Prince Qin, what kind of logic is this?
Why did this matter get involved with them?
When did the officials in the yamen become donkeys, they became tired donkeys.
"Junior official, do you think the king's decision on the case is fair enough? Can you say Qingtian?"
At this time, Zhu Xi looked at Guan Huaigong, who was full of slander, with a proud look on his face that he was the Qingtian Master.
Guan Huaigong had no choice but to curse in his heart again, but he forced a smile on his face and said respectfully: "What the prince said is absolutely true."
Zhu Feng snorted: "In that case, things will be easier to handle."
Snap.
Zhu Xi clapped his hands in front of everyone.
Immediately, countless uniformed guards rushed up from downstairs, all of them looking fiercely and staring at the Yangzhou officials present with sinister eyes.
A few floors downstairs, there were also chaotic movements.
"How brave of you! Why do you want to take me down?"
"Who gave you the courage? If I have committed something, if you want to arrest me, you have to issue an order from the court to let me go!"
"..."
There were bursts of shouting downstairs.
Then.
There were muffled sounds coming upstairs, followed by pitiful moans and pleas for mercy.
On the top floor of Jiangnan Tower, everyone looked tense and panicked.
You can imagine what the scene is downstairs with your feet.
Zhu Ming also stood up and smiled: "The officials in Yangzhou Prefecture were seriously absent from the examination. I took the order. It has been found out that it was the chief officials of the Yangzhou Prefecture who treated the officials harshly and made them sick from overwork."
, caused by tight errands and oppression. The evaluation of the officials of the 18th Prefecture of Nanzhili is a major matter of the country. The governor's Yamen petitioned the cabinet for approval. As officials of the court, you should have shared the worries of the court, but you did the opposite.
By doing so, the important affairs of the imperial court cannot be carried out. The king is entrusted by the imperial court with the power of life, death and decision-making. Now it is decreed that the officials of the Yamen of Yangzhou Prefecture, the Salt Transfer Envoy Department of Huaidu and Huaidu, the Governor's Yamen of Water Transport and other departments have delayed state affairs and hindered state affairs.
In Sheji, sins cannot be pardoned, all of them will be punished and beheaded immediately!"
Following Zhu Xi's order.
The Imperial Guards, who had been waiting for a long time, drew their swords and took down the Yangzhou officials who had not reacted one by one.
They couldn't tolerate these people crying out for mercy, so they were escorted downstairs in Jiangnan by the powerful and powerful guards.
Not long after.
Screams rang out one after another, and the smell of blood surged from the bottom of the building to the top.
Guan Huaigong was so shocked by this scene that his scalp went numb.
Before even eating, this man was beheaded by all the officials in Yangzhou city!
"Those officials who are absent from the examination..."
Guan Huaigong muttered in a low voice with some fear.
At this time, Zhu Xi stood by the window with his hands in his sleeves, looking at the bloody scene downstairs.
Outside the Jiangnan Tower, there were already heads rolling in and rivers of blood flowing. The officials who were escorted here were so frightened that their buttocks were wet.