After the video communication with Liu Weichao ended, Emperor Chongzhen thought for a while, then wrote a letter in his own hand, and then wrote a decree and sent it to Jiangnan immediately.
After Wang Dehua received the order, he immediately visited Li Ruolian, the commander of the Jinyi Guards. Li Ruolian then rushed from Nanjing to Haimen in Yangzhou Prefecture, where the Jiangnan Procurement Yamen was located.
Zheng Sen, the commander of the Jin Yiwei, heard that his immediate superior had arrived and hurriedly went out to greet him.
Li Ruolian was very amiable to Zheng Sen, who was the second in command at a young age. After some nonsense, he got down to business and said to Zheng Sen: "The most important thing for the imperial court now is to rectify the place. Do you know this?"
"Of course I know!" Zheng Sen replied without thinking after hearing this.
In Yingtian Mansion and Zhenjiang Mansion, it has long been spread throughout the world that the nobles who held the iron certificates of alchemy books for generations had their grain fields confiscated by the court in accordance with the law because they did not pay taxes.
For those nobles who have suffered such a big loss, most of the people are happy to hear about it. Especially young people, they feel that those nobles do not want to serve the country, and they deserve it!
Zheng Sen was just twenty years old at this time, and he was in high spirits. He was extremely grateful to Emperor Chongzhen for promoting him and reusing him, and he was very disgusted with those nobles who did not want to serve the country, but instead became the worms of the country.
After Li Ruolian heard Zheng Sen's answer and saw his expression, she knew what he was thinking.
So, he said to Zheng Sen: "Now that Yingtian Mansion and Zhenjiang Mansion have been reorganized, Governor Ma is now starting to reorganize other prefectures in South Zhili. At this rate, if we want to reorganize the whole country, I don't know how long it will take."
It’s been delayed until the year of the monkey and the month of the horse! Therefore, he has already reported to the court and is preparing to change the rectification method!"
Zheng Sen listened with great interest and watched Li Ruolian talking. Vaguely, he guessed that this method of change should have something to do with him.
He only heard Li Ruolian continue to say to him: "For other state capitals, Governor Ma will no longer do it personally. Instead, the imperial court has issued an edict to the world, requiring the governors of each province to work together with the Provincial Envoys and the Provincial Envoys to rectify the place.
The guards will send personnel to supervise, and separate the light and dark routes. Jinyiwei and Dongchang will send personnel to the bright side, and West Factory will send personnel to covertly. Only in this way can we speed up the rectification and complete the rectification as soon as possible!"
If we follow the Fengyang and Nanjing model, Ma Shiying firstly does not have the energy, and secondly, he does not have that many troops to send.
Fortunately, the hardest bone has been broken down in Nanjing. It will have a deterrent effect on other places.
Therefore, a rectification method was changed to speed up the progress of rectifying the place.
At this time, when Zheng Sen heard this, he immediately nodded and said: "This method is good, then we can rectify the whole country this year!"
Li Ruolian smiled after hearing this and said to him: "In our Jinyiwei Yamen here in Jiangnan, apart from the official, you are the biggest. Therefore, you must also be responsible for Jinyiwei's errands. As for Jiangnan's procurement yamen, you
You also have to be responsible. Look, can you make arrangements?"
His tone was as if he was discussing with Zheng Sen. There was no force, at least Zheng Sen couldn't feel it.
After hearing what Li Ruolian said, Zheng Sen immediately answered him without saying a word: "Of course, I can. As for the procurement office, everything has been smoothed out in the past two years. Basically, I have very few things to worry about.
, that is, stamping, checking, etc., just have time to walk around!"
It is a common characteristic for young people to be unable to sit still.
Hearing this, Li Ruolian smiled slightly and said: "In that case, I will send you some extra manpower. You will be responsible for Zhejiang. How about Fujian? I believe you are more familiar with it here and can better monitor it!"
"No problem!" After hearing this, Zheng Sen immediately laughed and said, "I'm from Fujian, don't be too familiar!"
Li Ruolian saw him and stared at him for a while, which made Zheng Sen feel a little confused. Then he reminded: "It doesn't matter anywhere else. It's said that your family has the most grain fields in Fujian, especially along the coast."
!”
When Zheng Sen heard this, he was stunned for a moment. He was a little surprised. His family had the most grain fields. Yes, what's wrong?
However, although he was not a family member and did not know that firewood, rice, oil and salt were expensive, he was still twenty years old after all. After several years of experience in the Yamen, his life was no more hazy than before. He immediately came to his senses and immediately replied: "Don't worry, sir.
Even if it’s my family’s grain field, we must act in accordance with the law and never be partial!”
Li Ruolian stared at him and realized that what he said was true, so he reminded him again: "According to my understanding, your family's grain fields have not paid taxes before!"
In fact, it was abnormal to pay taxes at this time in the late Ming Dynasty. For the vast majority of people, only those with power or some connections would find ways not to pay taxes.
What Li Ruolian means is that most of your Zheng family's grain fields will be confiscated!
After hearing this, Zheng Sen finally understood why the commander came to him in person and said such words to him.
He did not hesitate, and immediately patted his chest and assured Li Ruolian: "Don't worry, sir, it will be what it is. My subordinates are definitely not corrupt officials!"
Young people, who are not polluted by official circles, are prone to have this kind of awareness and motivation!
Li Ruolian looked at Zheng Sen, feeling very satisfied. He nodded immediately and said, "It seems that His Majesty really saw you right! Very good, very good!"
After finishing speaking, he took out a letter from his arms, gave it to Zheng Sen with both hands, and said respectfully: "This is a letter written by His Majesty, for you!"
Upon hearing this, Zheng Sen's expression immediately became solemn, he straightened his clothes, and then solemnly accepted the letter.
When Li Ruolian saw that he had received the letter, he said to him: "If you have the right to report secretly, you can contact His Majesty at any time. Over at Yingtian Mansion, the welfare lottery will be on sale soon, and I have to rush back to watch.
"
When Zheng Sen heard this, he sent Li Ruolian off first, but Li Ruolian didn't ask him to send it off and left in a hurry.
Therefore, Zheng Sen himself read this autographed letter from Emperor Chongzhen.
In his letter, Emperor Chongzhen first mentioned Zheng Sen's contribution in the past two years, and then mentioned the contribution of Zheng Zhilong brothers, saying that the Zheng family had made great contributions to the court. However, no matter how great the contribution was, one must abide by the "Da Ming Law"
.
He encouraged Zheng Sen to be a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, a role model for all officials, and to be remembered for generations, instead of being like Yan Song, Wei Zhongxian, etc., who failed to live up to the grace of the Ming Dynasty and ultimately brought disaster to the country and the people and were infamous for thousands of years.
At the end of the letter, Emperor Chongzhen also made a promise, asking Zheng Sen and the Zheng brothers to work hard, and a title was waiting for them.
At least, if Zheng Sen's fifth uncle returned safely from South America and brought back the things needed by the court, Emperor Chongzhen planned to reward him with a title.
This letter was actually borrowed from Zheng Sen's hand to give the Zheng family a guarantee: let them work hard and not let down the divine grace, and Emperor Chongzhen would never treat the Zheng family badly.
If this letter was received by Zheng Zhilong, he might have weighed the pros and cons. As for what Emperor Chongzhen said about being a loyal minister and being famous for centuries, he could probably just ignore it.
However, Zheng Sen is different!
This letter from Emperor Chongzhen made his blood boil!
He was very excited when he thought about being granted the title of a marquis and a general, a pillar of the Ming Dynasty, and would be remembered for generations to come.
The current emperor attaches so much importance to him and the Zheng family. How can he be so virtuous? It is like smoke rising from the graves of his ancestors!
Holding tightly this letter written by Emperor Chongzhen, Zheng Sen secretly made up his mind, no matter what, he must not let down the divine grace, and he must do this matter beautifully!
At this time, his father was not here, and neither were his uncles, so he made his own decision and wanted to do this matter as soon as possible. He even decided to go to Fujian first and then Zhejiang to make the matter a success!
………………
Let’s not talk about how Zheng Sen went about supervising local rectification matters in Fujian and Zhejiang, let’s talk about Ma Shiying.
In the decree passed down by Emperor Chongzhen, just as Li Ruolian said, there was also one thing that was told, that is, let Ma Shiying open a welfare lottery in Nanjing.
This is the second place besides the capital to sell welfare lottery tickets. This matter cannot be ignored because it is related to the opening of a new school in Nanjing.
It has been half a year since welfare lottery tickets were sold and new schools were opened in the capital, and a set of experience has been developed that can be used as a reference for Nanjing.
However, the literary style here in Nanjing is at its peak. Whether this matter goes smoothly is related to whether this measure can be implemented throughout Jiangnan.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen’s intention was to have Ma Shiying host it and the Nanjing garrison eunuch to co-organize it; after everything was arranged, the Nanjing garrison eunuch would take charge.
The final analysis of this arrangement was that Emperor Chongzhen did not trust the civil servants in Nanjing and only dared to use those he trusted.
Thinking about it, in the original history, in this year, before he hanged himself, he wrote "The ministers misunderstood me". It would be strange if he believed his ministers so quickly!
On the Nanjing side, Emperor Chongzhen was a little worried. The previous rectification of the place had caused the Nanjing nobles and squires to suffer a huge loss. They obviously did not dare to fight, and they might make trouble in this kind of thing.
Likewise, when Jiangnan's first lottery was launched and the school was run, he put a lot of effort into it. He took on the same posture as rectifying the place, but the army was not involved.
As a result, what happened on the Jiangnan side, or rather on the Nanjing side, was both expected and unexpected for Emperor Chongzhen.
He was right. None of the nobles and squires of Nanjing supported the sale of Nanjing lottery tickets, including businessmen who were related to them. In short, even the rich people did not participate.
However, what was unexpected was that the people here in Nanjing, to be precise, the hidden households that had been identified before, participated very enthusiastically.