Chapter 358 The Emperor's Angry
"hateful!"
After reading the secret report, Zhao Xing threw the letter out in anger.
When he heard that people in Jiangzhou were rebelling, he thought of countless possibilities.
I even wondered if there was a wizard cult behind it.
However, after reading the secret report, I found that there were indeed signs that someone was inciting this rebellion, but it cannot be confirmed now.
But the fundamental reason is that the officials forced the people to rebel.
The palace maids and eunuchs standing in the palace were so frightened that they dared not breathe.
The only sound in the hall was Zhao Xing's angry breathing.
After a while, Zhao Xing calmed down a little and said, "Go, call all the ministers to come and discuss the matter, and also summon Ningyuan Marquis Gu Yankai."
"Yes!" Sanshui responded and hurried away.
Zhao Xing sat down, picked up the teacup and took a sip, only then did he feel the anger in his heart subside a little.
About a cup of tea later, Han Zhang and his companions walked into the hall.
"Your Majesty, we pay our respects to you!" Han Zhang and others bowed.
"Have you ever heard, gentlemen, that ordinary people dare not have money?"
Zhao Xing looked at Han Zhang and the others and said, "I have heard that some common people are trying to arrange for their widows to remarry, and some are trying to separate from their relatives in a hurry, just to divide up their family's land. If the property cannot be divided, they will even give it away to relatives and friends for free. Do any of you know why?"
Hu Zhongyan and the others lowered their heads and said nothing. Han Zhang was silent for a while, then bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I do know something."
"I am somewhat ignorant of the sufferings of the people. Please tell me in detail, my Lord."
"Your Majesty, the common people dare not have money because some local officials will appoint wealthy people to serve as yamen officials, in charge of warehouses and tax collection. According to regulations, if the taxes cannot be collected or official property is damaged, the yamen officials must pay compensation." Han Zhang said.
"What the great minister said is consistent with what I heard. I couldn't believe it. Wouldn't it force the common people who work in the government offices to death? No wonder the common people don't dare to have money. If it were me, I wouldn't dare to have money either!"
Zhao Xing became more and more angry as he spoke. He slammed the table and stood up, pointing at Han Zhang and the others and said, "You are all ministers of the current dynasty, enjoying high positions and generous salaries. It is known that the salaries you receive are all the blood and sweat of the people. But you have all served in local positions. Don't you know this situation?
I killed a few corrupt officials, and you told me what laws our ancestors had passed down to me. A group of scholars blocked the palace gates, and I put them in jail. You knelt outside the palace and died making remonstrances. Have you ever cared about the lives of the people of the world?"
"Your Majesty, calm down!"
"Calm down?" Zhao Xing shouted angrily, "The people of Jiangzhou have been forced to rebel. How can you ask me to calm down? Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, the people have frequently rebelled. I have always wondered why, but now I understand that it was all because of the officials who forced them to rebel."
Because the people were rebelling, Prime Minister Shen did not dare to conceal anything in the secret report and described the events in detail.
After the floods in Jiangzhou and several neighboring states receded, the government organized post-disaster reconstruction work according to Zhao Xing's wishes.
Before Prime Minister Shen left, Zhao Xing had told him that the government would pay and the people would contribute to rebuilding houses for those who had lost their homes.
The cost of building houses in ancient times was not high, and most of the raw materials could be collected directly. The important thing was labor.
The largest expenditure is still on food, and there is not much money on money.
The people affected by the disaster had to rely on the court for relief, so this could be considered as work-for-relief.
Prime Minister Shen also strictly implemented Zhao Xing's instructions in Jiangzhou.
However, the bad things happened because of the local officials.
When providing disaster relief, the court sent someone to supervise the work, so they did not dare to be greedy or go too far, and thus no trouble was caused.
But post-disaster reconstruction was different. Each county had to rebuild individually, involving more than 20 counties in four states and hundreds of villages. Even Shen Xianggong and others sent by Zhao Xing were unable to supervise it.
Now the county officials became bolder. They withheld the money and grain allocated by the court for reconstruction and appointed many wealthy people to supervise the reconstruction work.
However, they only gave a small part of the money and grain, and wanted the rest to be made up by these rich households, which was also a common practice.
Han Zhang said that according to the rules, if taxes were not collected or official property was damaged, the yamen would have to pay compensation.
In fact, when official property was damaged or there was a shortfall in taxes, local officials directly appointed wealthy households to serve as yamen officials in order to make them pay to fill the vacancies. These wealthy households did not refer to the landlords and gentry, but to the relatively wealthy families among the ordinary people.
Local people have actually become accustomed to this practice.
However, this time it was different. The homes of the rich families were also destroyed, and now the government was forcing them to pay money to fill the gaps. Naturally, they were quite resistant.
They did not dare to resist and could only transfer what the county magistrate gave them to the ordinary people.
The people were forced to work, but the only food they were given was rice soup with almost no rice in it.
The Han people have a great advantage, which is that they are hardworking and stand hard work.
Many people did not dare to rebel, even to the point of being crushed to death.
In addition, although the work was very difficult, it was to build homes for them, so the people endured it.
However, there were people who instigated behind the scenes and told the people that the court had allocated enough money and grain, but all of it was embezzled by corrupt officials.
Under the instigation of some people with ulterior motives, the people were outraged and went to the county town to demand an explanation.
The county officials were worried that the news would spread, so they sent out yamen runners to expel the people.
As a result, some civilians and officials died during the expulsion process.
When a death occurred, the matter became a big deal. In addition, a government official was killed. The people who instigated the incident spread the word that killing the government official was tantamount to rebellion, and the government would then send out soldiers to kill them.
The people were frightened and instigated to rebel.
The same thing happened simultaneously in more than a dozen counties in Jiangzhou. By the time Prime Minister Shen learned the news, it was too late to quell the rebellion.
The people had been instigated to rob government offices, and even several county magistrates were killed.
Zhao Xing hated the people who instigated the incident behind the scenes, and he hated the officials even more.
If it weren't for them, the people would never have rebelled even if someone instigated them.
The four states had already been badly damaged by the floods and needed several years to recover. Now that a rebellion had broken out, it might take them seven or eight years to recover.
The states near Jiangzhou are relatively famous states in the south of the Yangtze River. Even if they are not as good as Suzhou, Hangzhou and Yangzhou, they are not far behind.
What Zhao Xing was most worried about was that the rebellious people would spread to other places and affect other states and counties.
"Your Majesty, the most important thing now is to settle this matter as soon as possible. If Your Majesty wants to hold someone accountable, you have to wait until this matter is settled." Han Zhang said.
Zhao Xing heard this and said, "I plan to have the Grand Chancellor go to Jiangzhou in person to appease the people on my behalf. Only the main culprit will be executed, and the rest will be forgiven!"
"Your Majesty, you can't do that!" Hu Zhongyan stepped out and said, "It is understandable that the people are rebelling, but the country has its own laws. If we let the people rebel so easily, in the future the people..."
"boom!"
Zhao Xing grabbed the teacup and threw it at Hu Zhongyan without waiting for him to finish speaking.
The teacup fell at Hu Zhongyan's feet and broke into pieces.
The tea splashed onto Hu Zhongyan's official robe, making him look very embarrassed.
"Minister Hu, do you have any questions about what I said?" Zhao Xing looked at Hu Zhongyan coldly.
Hu Zhongyan opened his mouth, but in the end no sound came out.
At this moment, Zhao Xing was like an angry lion, and he had a feeling that if he continued to speak, Zhao Xing would definitely kill him.
Although he felt that Zhao Xing would not do that, Han Zhang and others, including the emperor, would stop him.
But facing Zhao Xing's gaze, he didn't dare to continue speaking.
(End of this chapter)