Chapter 336: The Battle of Hehuang Begins
No matter what they thought in their hearts, whether they were willing or not, Zhao Xing's plan was an open one and they had to jump in.
For officials, reputation is everything.
For a time, the morning court became a fundraising meeting.
However, these officials also knew their limits and donated according to their respective ranks.
It’s not that no one wanted to donate more, even if this was Zhao Xing’s plan, but the stone tablet was real.
You can spend a little money to carve your name on the stone tablet at the entrance of the palace, so naturally some people are willing to spend more money to make their names higher up.
But once you do this, you will offend many people, so you have to give up.
Zhao Xing made a rough estimate, but the money donated by civil and military officials in the court amounted to several million taels.
After the morning court is over and the news spreads, those officials who are not qualified to attend the morning court will also follow suit and donate.
If all the thousands of officials of all ranks in the city of Bianliang donated money, it would probably be no less than five million taels.
Together with the donations from those businessmen, this money is more than enough for disaster relief, and there may even be some left over.
While Zhao Xing lamented the wealth of these officials, he suddenly thought of Emperor Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty.
Emperor Chongzhen begged his ministers to donate money to resist Li Jiancheng.
As a result, all the civil and military officials in the court donated a total of 200,000 taels of silver.
However, when Li Jiancheng entered Peking and confiscated the property of officials, he found 70 million taels of silver.
You have to know that this is just cash, and things like antiques, calligraphy and paintings, farms and shops are not included.
Some even say that if Emperor Chongzhen had been ruthless enough to confiscate the property of all those officials, the Ming Dynasty would not have perished.
Zhao Xing now has the urge to confiscate the property of these officials.
However, as soon as this idea came out, it was suppressed by Zhao Xing.
This statement is too extreme. If Emperor Chongzhen really did that, I am afraid that before Li Zicheng could even attack me, all the officials would unite to rebel and kill him.
No matter what, Zhao Xing was still very happy to be able to get some money from these officials.
My father set an example by advocating frugality, but what’s the use of saving money all his life?
Even if these officials are not extravagant, can the money still be given to the court?
Now they are forced to pay out some money even though they are obviously very distressed, which can be regarded as a way to vent their father's anger.
Zhao Xing said some polite words and announced that the morning court was over.
"Sanshui, according to the donation amounts on the list presented at the morning court, after daybreak, carve the names of the famous people on the stone tablet on the left side outside the palace. Don't carve those of the merchants yet," Zhao Xing ordered.
The reason why the merchants did not carve was that Zhao Xing left them time to donate again.
Rectifying the mutual trade and the Maritime Customs Office is a big stick, while engraving on stone to record the merits is a sweet treat.
To those businessmen, this sweet date is made of honey.
The status of merchants has always been low. Even though the Song Dynasty did not suppress merchants, their status was higher than that of workers and peasants, but the long-established concept still exists.
For businessmen, they could spend some money to carve their names on the stone tablet at the entrance of the palace, and some businessmen were willing to do so.
Only 5,000 taels of silver was donated, which was too cheap for them.
If he had not wanted to conceal the fact of engraving the stone to record the merits and use the merchants to force the officials to donate, he would have let Sheng Changsong confront those merchants directly.
If we auction the places directly at that time, I'm afraid we'll get more money.
"Yes!" Sanshui didn't ask any more questions, just responded and left in a hurry.
…………
Zhao Xing was right. Those merchants were forced to donate 5,000 taels of silver, and they were very unhappy.
However, as the morning court ended, Zhao Xing specially arranged for people to spread the word so that all the merchants in Bianliang would know about the merchants who had donated money, and the government would have their names engraved on the stone tablet outside the palace gate.
After hearing the news, many businessmen found Sheng Changsong and tried to find out how to carve their names higher and more conspicuous.
With Zhao Xing's instructions, Sheng Changsong directly told these people that those who donated the most would have their names engraved at the front, and the names of the top 30 would be bigger than those of others.
If they paid with grain, even if the total value was slightly lower, they would still be ranked at the top. Zhao Xing had no choice but to do this, because these merchants, now that they were rich, liked to buy land the most.
They are all rich and are also relatively large landowners.
There is a lot of food in hand.
Because of Zhao Xing's threat, they did not dare to raise the price, but they were reluctant to sell the grain.
The imperial court purchased grain on a large scale, and merchants were reluctant to sell, causing grain prices to rise a lot.
This is not malicious price manipulation, but is caused by the market.
Zhao Xing had no way to deal with this.
You can't punish people for not selling their grain.
However, the situation in Jiangzhou was more serious than Zhao Xing had imagined. There was a large shortage of grain. If the imperial court continued to purchase it, grain prices would rise everywhere, and the people everywhere would suffer.
Doing so will also force wealthy businessmen to donate more food.
When the wealthy businessmen heard this, they did not hesitate at all. Many of them donated all the extra grain they had at home just to get their names at the front of the list.
To them, it would be an exaggeration to say that money is just a number, but they have no shortage of it.
Compared to money, what they want more is to improve their social status.
Having your name engraved on the stone tablet at the palace gate is a matter of honor for your family.
The stone tablet is so big and so many people have donated. If it is not bigger, how can people see it at a glance?
Compared to this, money, food and other things are not worth mentioning at all.
…………
While Zhao Xing was busy with disaster relief, Western Xia once again sent troops to the plateau.
It is already August and the temperature on the plateau is getting cold quickly. If we don't send troops out now, it will be delayed until the beginning of spring next year.
The Western Xia retreated in order to allow the various tribes in the plateau to consume their power through civil war, and they did not want to see the internal unification of the plateau.
Although it has not met Xixia’s expectations, Xixia does not dare to drag it on any longer.
If it really takes until the beginning of next spring and the various tribes on the plateau are unified, it will be even more troublesome for Western Xia.
As soon as Western Xia sent troops, the Hehuang area also became chaotic.
Before, Gu Tingye mobilized weapons and armor from the army to sell to the Tubo and Qiang people in the Hehuang area. Wang Shao sent people to spread the news that the withdrawal of Western Xia was just a delaying tactic and that they would definitely send troops again to annex the plateau.
Once Western Xia annexed the plateau, the next step would be to take action against the Hehuang area.
In recent years, the Song Dynasty has been pinned down by the Western Xia and Liao dynasties and has no intention of conquering Hehuang.
On the contrary, Western Xia had always been eyeing Hehuang. If it had not been for the Song Dynasty, it would have taken action long ago.
The Tubo and Qiang people in the Hehuang area also knew this.
Now that Xixia and the Song Dynasty have made peace, they are really afraid that the Song Dynasty will not intervene when Xixia sends troops to Hehuang, so everyone is in danger.
Seeing that Western Xia had indeed sent troops to the plateau again, he began to believe those rumors to about 70%.
They now have only two choices: either unite to guard against Western Xia, or take advantage of Western Xia's military action on the plateau to annex other tribes and unify Hehuang.
Compared with the alliance, they are naturally more excited about unifying Hehuang.
The most important thing is that the weapons and armor provided to them by the Song Dynasty increased their confidence.
Gu Tingye had previously mobilized a batch of weapons and armor from the army and provided them to the two largest tribes of Tubo and Qiang.
The transactions are all kept secret from the other party.
Later, Sheng Wei delivered weapons and armor, which were supposed to fill the gap that Gu Tingye had previously transferred out.
However, after Gu Tingye and Wang Shao received the letter from Zhao Xing asking them to act at their own convenience, they discussed and decided not to make up for the part that had been transferred out before, but to provide it all to Tubo and Qiang.
After the Western Xia launched its military campaign, the Qiang and Tubo people in the Hehuang area, because they had obtained a large number of weapons and armor, became more ambitious and chose to send troops at the same time.
However, the Qiang people acted faster and launched a sneak attack first, quickly destroying the two small Tibetan tribes.
(End of this chapter)