Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

On the other side, after Luo Jinsong left Zhen's house, he quickly arrived at the meeting point agreed in advance.

"How's it going? How's the injury?" He looked at the two injured brothers and asked.

"Don't worry, sir, it's just a flesh wound, nothing serious!"

"That's good!" Luo Jinsong breathed a sigh of relief.

Every soldier in the Guards Battalion is a treasure. If he loses a few, he will not be able to explain to Yang Zhengshan after he returns.

"What's wrong?"

At this time, another team also came back, and Ding Qiu came over and asked.

Luo Jinsong shook his head slightly, "The infiltration failed. The Zhen family has a master of the acquired ninth level. In order to avoid causing a disturbance, I can only let the brothers retreat first!"

Ding Qiu frowned, "Do you know the identity of that master?"

Masters of the ninth level acquired the day after tomorrow are very rare in Liaodong. If you don't count the military attachés and generals, but just the martial arts warriors, you can count them on one hand.

However, a warrior with the acquired ninth level actually appeared in the Zhen family. This was obviously unreasonable.

"I can't tell, but I'm definitely not a master from Liaodong. I know all the masters from Liaodong!" Luo Jinsong said.

Ding Qiu fell into deep thought.

An unknown master appears in Zhen's house!

This should be a message worth paying attention to.

"How are you doing there?" Luo Jinsong asked.

Ding Qiu replied: "Everything goes well. This Ning Dongsheng is too scared to death. He just asked casually and told everything!"

"Do you want to investigate the Zhen family again?" Luo Jinsong asked again.

Ding Qiu thought for a while, "No need, Ning Dongsheng has explained a lot. If others can also gain something, then the evidence is enough!"

They are not detectives or spies, so they will not follow the rules to collect evidence, but will take their time step by step.

How to find evidence fastest?

Then naturally go to the person’s home to find it and ask the person!

Moreover, it is not difficult to collect evidence of the crimes of these wealthy businessmen. They have done many things such as running rampant in the countryside, oppressing the people, and robbing and plundering.

Of course, the evidence Yang Zhengshan wanted was not this kind of evidence, but evidence that they colluded with officials and businessmen, paid and accepted bribes, and sought personal gain.

Such evidence is not hard to find.

Rich businessmen collude with officials and always like to follow some so-called rules, and these rules require accounting. Who gets how much profit every month, and how much money needs to be sent, all of which need to be sorted out.

Otherwise, there will inevitably be omissions in a confusing account, causing dissatisfaction on both sides.

Ding Qiu got far more evidence than he imagined. Just what he got from Ning Dongsheng's mouth was enough to cause a major earthquake in Pingyuan's officialdom.

…

Chongshanguan, inside the General Military Mansion.

Yang Zhengshan sat in his study and read the letters sent from Kyoto.

A letter sent to him by Emperor Yanping!

To be honest, he was very surprised when he got this letter.

Emperor Yanping actually wrote to him, which was somewhat beyond his impression of Emperor Yanping.

And when he saw the contents of the letter, he felt even more flattered.

Emperor Yanping actually allocated him one million taels of silver!

The money was still on the way, but the letter was delivered first.

However, Emperor Yanping wrote this letter not to tell him about the one million taels of silver, but to ask him about the sales of glass products.

The question is whether glass products from Kyoto should be sold outside Kyoto and how to sell them. Is there a regulation?

Yang Zhengshan felt very happy when he saw such an inquiry.

This means that Emperor Yanping does not dislike him, but even attaches great importance to him.

Although Emperor Yanping had the intention to snatch the glass business, he could ask Yang Zhengshan, which was his recognition of Yang Zhengshan.

As for Emperor Yanping's inquiry, Yang Zhengshan carefully considered it for a long time.

The glass workshop cannot be the private property of the Yang family!

Wealth, wealth, and honor. In this feudal dynasty, wealth was naturally not as important as honor.

If the profit from the glass business is only a few hundred thousand or a million taels, then it is not impossible for Yang Zhengshan to live alone.

But the interests involved in the glass business are so huge that no one in the world can live alone.

Not even the emperor!

Now Emperor Yanping can live alone, but after the civil and military officials of the court discover that the glass business can earn tens of millions of taels of silver a year, they will definitely let Emperor Yanping hand over the glass business to the court for operation.

Don't think that the emperor can always keep his word. The emperor may sometimes compromise with his ministers.

Therefore, Yang Zhengshan did not regard the glass workshop as the Yang family's industry from the beginning, and dedicated the methods and techniques of making glass to Emperor Yanping from the beginning.

Emperor Yanping definitely wanted to hold this wealth in his hands, but how to explain it to the court officials so that they would not compete with him?

Yang Zhengshan thought about it for a long time and finally came up with an idea that seemed to be a good one.

Ministry of Internal Affairs!

Royal merchant!

The Ministry of Internal Affairs was a unique institution of the Qing Dynasty, with as many as 3,000 officials, more than ten times more than the Ministry of Household Affairs, which had the most complicated affairs. It could be said to be the largest institution in the Qing Dynasty.

The main function of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is to manage royal affairs, such as royal daily meals, clothing, storage, etiquette, engineering, farms, animal husbandry, guards, mountains and rivers, etc. It also controls the salt administration, collects and collects customs, and accepts tributes.

The imperial merchants were appointed by the emperor to manage the royal industry in an official capacity, conduct business on behalf of the official government, monopolize some important industries operated by the court, and manage the royal industry in various places.

In fact, in the Qing Dynasty, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was also part of the court, and the officials in the Ministry of Internal Affairs also had the same rank as the officials in the court. Similarly, imperial merchants also had official status and grades.

To put it simply, this is a kind of integration of government and business, which has similar attributes to the state-owned enterprises in previous generations.

In fact, Da Rong also has a House of Internal Affairs and an Imperial Merchant. The 24th Yamen of the Imperial City have some of the responsibilities of the Imperial Household, and the management of the Huangzhuang Huangdian is similar to that of the Imperial Merchant.

It's just that the people currently used by the Darong Royal Family to manage the Huangzhuang and Huangdian are all eunuchs, not officials.

Naturally, Yang Zhengshan would not propose that Emperor Yanping establish an internal affairs office. This would have a great impact on the court, and he did not dare to mess around.

He just suggested to Emperor Yanping that the Imperial Merchant Department should be established in the court, with one chief official, the fifth rank, and two deputy officials, two foreign ministers, the sixth rank, with several principals under their jurisdiction, up to the seventh rank.

Businessmen can join the Imperial Merchant Department as director and operate the royal industry, including the glass industry, as an imperial merchant.

The court has the power to appoint and dismiss officials of the Imperial Commercial Department, and the emperor can appoint eunuchs to serve as supervisors in the Imperial Commercial Department to supervise the operations and finances of the Imperial Commercial Department.

A proportion of the income of the Imperial Merchant Department goes to the Household Department, and a portion goes to internal funds.

As for the proportion, that is a matter between Emperor Yanping and the Ministry of Revenue, and Yang Zhengshan cannot make the decision.

The Imperial Merchant Department was under the jurisdiction of the court, but it managed the emperor's private property, from which both the emperor and the court could benefit.

However, there are many contradictions in this suggestion.

The first is the issue of distribution ratio, how much should the emperor get and how much should the Ministry of Households get.

Secondly, whether other industries should also be included, such as salt and iron, and some royal properties and real estate.

Finally, there is a big contradiction, which is to give official status to businessmen.

If scholars, peasants, industry and merchants, and imperial merchants had grades and official status, it would be equivalent to changing the class of scholars, peasants, industry and merchants.

You must know that in Da Rong, merchants have low status and cannot participate in the imperial examination or serve as officials.

However, merchants are not completely unable to become officials. If the merchant's children can join the army, if they can perform meritorious service on the battlefield after joining the army, they can also be promoted to become military attachés.

Therefore, merchants can be military attaches but cannot be civil servants.

Yang Zhengshan had previously asked Liang Xiu to follow Yang Minghao and Luo Bo to follow Yang Chengye, just to let them get rid of the restrictions of merchant status through meritorious service.

Once the official merchants of the imperial merchants appear, it is equivalent to opening an opportunity for merchants to obtain official status.

At that time, all merchants in Da Rong will flock to this.

And scholars all over the world may stand up and oppose it.

Yang Zhengshan thought about it for a while and added another sentence below: Businessmen who serve as the head of the Imperial Commercial Department are not allowed to be promoted.

In this way, there will still be controversy, but it should reduce the opposition of scholars.

Yang Zhengshan spent a whole day writing this proposal.

There must be many things that are inappropriate or that he has not considered, but that doesn't matter. He is just making a suggestion. Whether to adopt his suggestions and how to implement his suggestions is Emperor Yanping's business.

The next day, Yang Zhengshan had the letter sent to Kyoto.

Just when Yang Zhengshan asked someone to send the letter to Kyoto, Ding Qiu knocked on the door of An Ruhui's mansion in Dongyang City.

"The villain Ding Qiu, the steward of the Marquis of Jing'an Mansion, pays homage to Mr. An!"

In the main hall of An Mansion, Ding Qiu bowed to An Ruhui with a respectful expression.

An Ruhui was surprised by Ding Qiu's arrival.

Of course he knew the Marquis of Jing'an Yang Zhengshan. After all, he had an irreversible relationship with Lin Zhan. When he came to Liaodong to take up his post, Lin Zhan had told him that if he encountered any trouble, he could ask the Marquis of Jing'an for help.

It's just that his temper did not allow him to cling to powerful people, so from the beginning to the end he never thought about having anything to do with the Jing'an Marquis Mansion.

Similarly, he did not expect that people from the Marquis of Jing'an Mansion would come to his door.

"Are you from the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion? Is Marquis of Jing'an looking for something to do with me?" An Ruhui couldn't figure out Ding Qiu's purpose.

Ding Qiu nodded, "The Marquis asked the villain to hand these things over to the adults!"

As he spoke, he took out a square wooden box from his companion behind him.

An Ruhui looked at the wooden box hesitantly, "What's inside?"

"Your Excellency, you will know after seeing it!" Ding Qiu said.

An Ruhui frowned. He was afraid that there were some things that couldn't be taken, such as silver.

But thinking that Marquis Jing'an seemed to have no reason to give him money, he reached out and opened the wooden box.

There is a thick stack of booklets placed in the wooden box.

"This is?"

Ding Qiu said: "This is evidence that eighteen officials including Pingyuan Chief Zhao Yunxing, Right Councilor Ye Changlian, Deputy Inspector Ning Dongsheng, Dongyang Prefecture Dong Shuyan, Guangning Prefecture Wang Dexin and many other wealthy businessmen colluded. Collusion, oppressing good people, grabbing fertile land, dominating the market, suppressing colleagues, persecuting merchants, killing people and violating the law! "

"Moreover, they recently want to take advantage of the severe drought in Liaodong to raise food prices. According to their plan, they will double the price of food in half a month. They will also incite the people to cause chaos and coerce the court to allocate money and food for disaster relief!"

"What!" An Ruhui was completely stunned.

Ding Qiu's words were really unbelievable and shocking.

An Ruhui wouldn't be surprised if there was collusion between officials and businessmen, and he wouldn't be shocked even if he committed murder and violated the law.

But raising the price of food, inciting the people to revolt, and coercing the court to allocate money and food!

He couldn't even imagine such a thing.

He eagerly flipped through the books in the wooden box one by one.

It records many facts of bribery and corruption, and the officials involved are definitely more than 18, but it can be seen that the main one is Zhao Yunxing, the governor of Pingyuan.

Of course, Zhao Yunxing would not collect the money himself. The one who collected the money was a man named Liu San, who was Zhao Yunxing's close follower.

Soon, An Ruhui browsed through all the account books. He asked with a gloomy face: "How do you know that they want to raise the price of grain and incite the people to riot!"

Ding Qiu took out another confession from his arms and handed it to An Ruhui, "This is the confession of Ning Dongsheng, the deputy envoy of the Censorate!"

An Ruhui opened the confession and took a look. There were indeed confessions about raising the price of grain and inciting the people to riot.

"Is this true?"

Ding Qiu said lightly: "It's true. Ning Dongsheng is in our hands now. He can testify at any time!"

"You arrested Ning Dongsheng?" An Ruhui was shocked.

"No, we just asked Lord Ning to go to a quiet place for tea!" Ding Qiu said.

Drink tea!

Isn't it just imprisonment?

An Ruhui took a deep breath, looked at the account book in the wooden box, and then looked at the confession in his hand.

"Are they really going to incite the people to riot?"

Ding Qiu's eyes flickered, "There are all kinds of evidence and witnesses, and there are detailed plans."

An Ruhui was stunned, and then looked at Ding Qiu with astonishment.

"Are you lying to me?"

Ding Qiu smiled, "No, these evidences are all real!"

"..." An Ruhui was silent.