Zhang Wenden sneaked in holding the satin lapel of his official robe, bowed to Huang Jinnian who was sitting in the hall, and then bowed to the colleagues present, and said: "Lin Xuwen, Yang Yihang, Ma Yigong, Zhou Guangdong and others are all here."
After going to the island, Sun Fengyi and Zhou Guangnan went to Jinwei Island before noon. In all likelihood, it was Lin Fu who came over. He pretended to be filial and ignored the military and political affairs of Chongzhou, but secretly sneaked into Jinhai.
...My heart..." After all, he didn't say the following words.
Huang Jinnian remained silent with a sullen face, was he secretly trying to deceive the emperor? Unless he sent someone to the island to catch Lin Fu, how could he get the handle? Who should he send? Even Prime Minister Zhang was probably not willing to kill this vicious dog at this time.
Completely irritated, even if we want to deal with him, we will have to wait until Lu Guogong Liang Xi fully grasps the situation in Shandong before he can be more confident.
Everyone in the hall remained silent.
Zhang Wenden was the first to come to preside over Jinhai warehouse as the head of the household department. After Zhang Xie promoted him to Yuanwailang, he became an important figure in the Zhang and Yue family in Jinhai. However, Zhang Wenden was far from enough to counter Lin Xuwen's power in Jinhai.
After Tang Haoxin took office in Shandong, Zhang Xie openly transferred Huang Jinnian, the right minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs and the general envoy of the Gyeonggi Cangchang, to Jinhai to take charge, becoming the core of Zhang Xie's officials in Jinhai.
Huang Jinnian was a high-ranking member of the imperial court. With the high position of Right Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, he was in charge of the Yannan water transportation and the affairs of the Thirteen Warehouses in the capital. He was a core member of the Zhang and Yue factions of the Chu party.
In order to strengthen the coordination of money and grain expenditure and transshipment between Xuanfu, Jibei Town and Jingying, the imperial court established a General Consul Department in Jinhai last May, and Huang Jinnian also served as the Chief Envoy of the General Consul Department.
The concept and functions of the General Department were similar to that of the Logistics Department in later generations. It was not only responsible for transshipment matters, but also actually held the power of logistics supply for Xuanfu, Jibei Town and the Jingying Army.
While coordinating the transfer and allocation of grain and grass, it also placed an additional restriction on Li Zhuo's military power in the Northern Army in addition to Hao Zongcheng.
The General Consul General's Department was located in Jinhai because the grain and other materials needed by Xuanfu, Jibei Town and the Jingying Army were heavily dependent on the input of the Jinhai grain road at this time.
In this way, two systems of power were formed in Tianjin and Hainan. One was the Tianjin-Hai capital cauldron system headed by Lin Xuwen, Ma Yigong and others, which controlled the transportation from Shandong to the vortex mouth of Tianjin and Hainan and the defense of Tianjin and Hainan. The second was the Tianjin-Hai Cao system headed by Huang Jinnian and Zhang Wenden.
The household department headed by the Cangchang and General Department departments were responsible for the storage, allocation and transshipment of grain and grass arriving at Tianjin and Hainan after taking away the inland waterway transportation from Wukou to Weihe River.
In addition to the Tianjin navy led by Ma Yigong, Yang Yihang and others, there was also the Cangchang garrison controlled by Huang Jinnian, with a strength of about 6,000 in ten battalions.
The estrangement and fighting among the factions greatly hampered Li Zhuo's efforts to build an elite partial division in Jinhai.
Huang Jinnian, Zhang Wendeng and other close officials sat in the hall for a long time. When dusk fell, Lin Xuwen, Ma Yigong, Yang Yihang and others had not returned from Jinwei Island.
Huang Jinnian was upset by all the eighteen generations of Lin Fu's ancestors. Apart from sending a horse to Beijing to inform Zhang Xie that Lin Fu might come to Jinhai, he could only let the officer hold the lamp and patiently continue to sit in the hall and wait, without any intention of giving up.
People arrange night banquets.
Zhang Wendeng was the first to be alerted to Lin Fu's arrival in Jinhai. He hadn't eaten lunch yet and had been there until now. His stomach was pounding. He excused himself to go out to relieve his hunger and asked someone to go to the kitchen to find some food to satisfy his hunger. He didn't expect Lin Fu to be there.
Fu’s intention of secretly coming to Jinhai, does he really have the guts to strangle the Gyeonggi grain road?
Thinking this way, I can't blame Prime Minister Zhang and the palace for being cruel to Tang Haoxin. Who wants to have their neck pinched in other people's hands all the time?
After Tang Haoxin's death, there was no movement from Lin Fu. He still followed the order and escorted Prince Ning to the capital of Jiangning. Why did he delay taking action until today?
Zhang Wendeng was puzzled, but he knew that if Lin Fu really had the guts to cut off the Jinhai food route, it would probably be a dead end for both parties!
For many years, the total amount of grain that Gyeonggi Province, including the Jinhai Thirteen Cangchangs, has been allocated each year has fluctuated around 3 million shi, which is mainly used for the inner court, princes and civil and military officials, as well as for the Xuanfu, Jibei, where the total number of soldiers exceeds 200,000.
Official salaries include grain for soldiers and livestock feed; only when there is surplus grain in the warehouse or there is a major disaster in the capital, can grain be sold to civilians.
After the Lubei Cao Road was abolished, grain was transported through the opening of the Tianjin-Sea Grain Road and the Taihang Mountain Northern Post Road, and the Gyeonggi Province barely managed to survive the grain shortage crisis. On the books, the Gyeonggi Province still barely maintained a stock of 400,000 kilograms of grain.
Zhang Wenden knew in his heart that a considerable portion of the rice grains shipped from Tianjin to Gyeonggi Province were secretly entered into the private warehouses of grain dealers and sold on the market for profit. The actual grain stocks in the thirteen warehouses in Gyeonggi Province were probably less than half.
Now that the Donglu are raging in northern Shanxi, most of the grain transportation post roads in the Taihang Mountains have been destroyed. Only 10,000 to 20,000 kilograms of grain are transported to the center of the capital every month. With the grain roads on the Jinhai side, even if the surplus grain in the army is included, Xuan
The 200,000 troops in Fufu, Jibei and Jingying can only last for two or three months. By then, the inner court, civil and military officials, princes and nobles will all have to cut back on food and clothing.
Can the Duke of Lu control the situation in Dongshan in two months and use Dengzhou Water Camp to replace the maritime merchant forces in Jinhai to undertake the transportation of 200,000 shi of rice and grain from Shandong to Jinhai every month?
It is also necessary to consider that Lin Fu and others may directly rebel and lead the Jinghai Sea Camp north to attack the Dengzhou Water Camp; it is good that the Dengzhou Water Camp can win, but if it is completely defeated, there will be no other solution except moving the capital.
It is unimaginable what kind of disaster it would be to move the capital at this time, not to mention that the situation in the southeast is also chaotic. Western Shandong and eastern Henan cannot settle down, and there is no route to move the capital south.
Those large warships parked at the pier on the west coast of Jinwei Island, even though they were four or five miles away, made people feel obvious pressure.
If the imperial court and Prime Minister Zhang compromise, will some of their subordinates be sacrificed? Zhang Wendeng felt a little nervous when he thought of this.
At this time, the gatekeeper outside walked in slowly. Zhang Wendeng walked over to stop him and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Master Du Cao is here and wants to join the general administration," the questioner replied.
Lin Xuwen came ashore at this time? Zhang Wendeng didn't even bother to find something to eat to satisfy his hunger, and immediately went back to the hall, waiting for Lin Xuwen to come over. He was here for a showdown. It was life or death at this moment. How could he care about his stomach?
.
Lin Xuwen, wearing his fourth-grade crimson official robe and gauze cap, walked into the lobby shakily. Seeing the officials sitting there, he cupped his hands towards Huang Jinnian and said, "I don't know that Mr. Huang summoned the officials to discuss matters. Lin came at the wrong time.
Then come back and see Mr. Huang in a while..." Sun Shangwang followed Lin Xuwen without saying a word. After coming over, everyone followed Lin Xuwen's lead.
Lin Xuwen served as Zuoqiandu's censor, and he also knew Hejian Prefecture, supervised military preparations, and was the capital of Jinhai Water Transport Department. He was ranked as a fourth-rank official and was controlled by Tang Haoxin, the ambassador of Shandong and Water Governor.
After Tang Haoxin's death, the Jinhai Water Transport Department returned to Shandong in name only. Liang Xi, the Duke of Lu, served as the governor of Shandong. It was only Liang Xi who entered Jinan and had not yet reached out to Jinhai.
Huang Jinnian, the third-rank right minister of the Ministry of Revenue and the commander-in-chief of the Gyeonggi Cangchang and Northern Army Command Departments, could not control Lin Xuwen either in name or in reality; their status in Jinhai was equal.
"Oh, the discussion here is over." Huang Jinnian patiently asked everyone to retreat, leaving only Zhang Wenden and three or four other close confidants to stay in the hall. He asked Lin Xuwen, "Mr. Lin came to me at this time. Could it be that there is something urgent?
Can’t do it?”
Seeing Huang Jinnian pretending to be calm, Lin Xuwen ignored him, sat down, took the tea brought by the officer, narrowed his eyes slightly, and said: "Today afternoon, I was caught on the island, listening to the merchants from Deng, Lai, Hejian and other places.
And the person in charge of Jiyun Society here complained for a while - the sea route is now difficult and dangerous, the sea ice is wider than last year, the weather is slightly warmer, the left bank of Jinhai Sea is full of floating ice, and the Jinhai warehouse collects clean grain, this
The loss of transportation will be borne by the maritime merchants and Jiyun Society. The foot money given last year was also because no one had done this before. It was drafted when Tang Gong was around. After the year, everyone calculated it and it was gone.
After half a year, not only have I not made any money, but I have also forced everyone to put in a lot of money. Businessmen say they are profitable, but without money, it is difficult to gather people's hearts. I also feel embarrassed, so I came to discuss it with Mr. Huang...
"
Huang Jinnian closed his eyes and stared at Lin Xuwen's face: In order to maintain the maritime grain route from Shandong to Jinhai, the court almost paid a fee of 500 yuan per stone meter, although it was better than transporting food by land from Jinzhong.
It is much more frugal to travel with food, but compared to the sea route, it is already quite wide and expensive.
For this fee, even Dengzhou Shuiying was willing to step in, but Li Zhuo, Tang Haoxin, Lin Xuwen and others worked together to stop it. It goes without saying what the intentions of Tang Haoxin and Lin Xuwen were, but in this matter
, Li Zhuo exerted resistance, which also caused some people to criticize him.
When Huang Jinnian saw Lin Xuwen and Lin Fu threatened to increase the shipping fee, he suppressed his anger and said, "Have the hearts of the Denglai merchants lost their hearts?" But his eyes were fixed on Lin Fu's agent in the north, Sun Shangwang.
This Sun Shangwang, who was born as a scholar in Hejian Prefecture, could only go to Jinan to work as a teacher for rich families in his early years to make ends meet. Now he is Lin Xuwen. Lin Xuwen and his family are important figures in Jinhai. Denglai merchants transport grain to designated warehouses.
Hong Kong Royal Goods, but there is no direct monetary exchange with the warehouse. Jiyunshe, represented by Sun Shangwang in the north, is the middleman that handles all settlements with the household department and the warehouse.
While improving efficiency, coordinating with Jiyun Society also prevents maritime merchants from being exploited by officials at will given the current low status of merchants.
"That's true." Sun Shangwang said calmly.
“How much money do you need to make to keep people’s hearts in check?”
"Five cents of silver per stone of grain is enough," Sun Shangwang said.
Hearing what Sun Shangwang said, Huang Jinnian couldn't help but widen his eyes no matter how good-tempered he was. He expected the Tianjin-Hai Grain Road to import two million stones of grain every year. Each stone of grain increased by five cents, which meant that one million taels more a year.
With Yin's foot fee, Lin Fu really dared to open his mouth like a lion!
Zhang Wendeng couldn't figure it out. Is Lin Fu going to talk to Bengli? Where could the Ministry of Household Affairs still have the remaining one million taels of silver to squeeze out?