When the censor Huang Zongxi arrived at the main hall, he first bowed to Chongzhen.
After the ceremony, he said to everyone: "This August, I opened a mine in Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang with the East Factory Admiral Wang Zhixin. On August 16, the local Li Yuanwai first handed me the bribe booklet, then cried to me about how Admiral Wang asked for a bribe from him, and finally hit his head against the wall in front of Admiral Wang and me and died."
"The details are all recorded in the files, so I won't go into details."
"This is a bribery booklet." Huang Zongxi unfolded the booklet and showed it to everyone before continuing, "Not only is Wang Zhixin's name on it, but also the names of 41 officials from Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang."
"They each received hundreds to tens of thousands of taels of silver. Wang Zhixin received the most, with the amount recorded in the book reaching as high as one million taels."
After Huang Zongxi finished reading, Shi Bangyao, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, pointed at Wang Zhixin's nose and said, "Wang Zhixin, do you have anything else to quibble about?"
"It's unfair, it's unfair!" Wang Zhixin immediately cried out with great emotion: "The war in Liaodong is intense this year, and the imperial treasury is empty! In order to prevent the soldiers on the front line from starving, I can only speed up the mining."
"But mining requires manpower and farmland! In order to help the local people, Mr. Li took the initiative to find me to discuss this matter. He said that he was willing to use money to support the court and hoped that I could go to other places to open a mine."
"The court still has a deficit of one million taels this year, so I offered him one million taels. As long as he can come up with this money, I will immediately open a mine in another place. If he can't come up with it, he will have to endure it."
"As a result, Mr. Li thought I was asking for a bribe from him, and after handing over the money, he became furious and went to extremes."
"Please everyone, please look carefully, Your Majesty!"
As soon as Wang Zhixin said this, Shi Bangyao was speechless.
How to say it?
Regardless of whether Wang Zhixin solicited bribes or not, his purpose in doing so was to solve the deficit of the court.
It was because of this money that the soldiers in Liaodong did not starve.
Without this money, the soldiers on the front line going hungry would not be a big deal, but the terrible thing is that they would most likely lose the war.
To put it nicely, Wang Zhixin was working to relieve the court's worries regardless of his personal reputation.
Shi Bangyao didn't know whether he should continue asking, so he could only look at the Prime Minister Fan Jingwen.
The instigator of this incident was Fan Jingwen.
He was the head of the civil officials, and he had to both help the emperor share his worries and safeguard the interests of the gentry.
Otherwise, the people below will pretend to obey but actually disobey, resulting in the government’s orders not being carried out.
Mr. Li's father was an important official in the Wanli Dynasty. Now he has been persecuted to death, and he must speak out.
in addition.
Mining must be stopped.
The chain reaction caused by mining is too huge.
On the surface, Wang Zhixin was opening a mine, but in reality he was cleaning up the local landlords and gentry who had committed bad deeds.
But...no one is perfect.
As long as you are willing to spend the time to look, you will find that all the landlords and gentry in the Ming Dynasty have problems.
Sooner or later, Fan Jingwen will have to return to his hometown to retire.
He didn't want Wang Zhixin to come to his house and say that there was a mine under his house just after he returned home.
So he took the opportunity to make a big deal out of this matter.
On the surface, he was dealing with Wang Zhixin, but in fact he wanted Chongzhen to stop mining.
"Wang Zhixin," Fan Jingwen said slowly, "deficit, mining, bribery, and harming people are four things that cannot be reduced to one thing. You are trying to cover up the crime of soliciting bribes and killing others by saying that you are making up for the deficit. This is neither reasonable nor legal."
"A gentleman should seek greater benefits and avoid minor evils. You keep saying that you are doing things for the court, but what you are doing is actually harming the interests of others. How is this different from those corrupt officials who levy heavy taxes?"
"Lord Fan!" Wang Zhixin snorted coldly, "Don't mention the word gentleman. It's just a tool to show off yourself."
"Some people keep talking about morality and gentlemanly conduct, but they do shameful things behind the scenes. The so-called gentleman is just flattering himself!"
"I only know that the court is in deficit! If you can't solve the deficit, I will have to solve it. Otherwise, the army that pacifies Liao will be short of money, the front line will be defeated, and in the end, the court and the people will suffer."
Fan Jingwen coughed lightly and said, "Wang Zhixin, the court does have a deficit. But the Ministry of Revenue and the Cabinet have been trying to find a solution to this problem. You always use this as an excuse. You are really shameless."
When talking about the deficit, everyone looked at the Minister of Revenue Xie Sanbin.
Xie Sanbin thought he was here to watch the fun, but he didn't expect that the topic would turn to himself.
He lowered his head and pretended not to hear.
"Your Majesty," Fan Jingwen looked at Chongzhen and brought the topic back to the topic: "Wang Zhixin broke the law knowingly, his crime is even more serious, please punish him severely!"
Fan Jingwen's requirements were very low. He just wanted to severely punish Wang Zhixin, but he didn't want to kill him.
Because if one King's Heart falls, countless more will stand up.
He wanted to use the incident of Wang Zhixin to achieve his goal of stopping mining.
The other officials in the court all looked up, wanting to see how the Ming Emperor would deal with the Governor of the East Factory.
If Chongzhen severely punished Wang Zhixin, it would be tantamount to cutting off one of his own arms.
If Wang Zhixin was given a lenient sentence, it would not be able to quell the anger of court officials and local gentry.
Chongzhen did not take this seemingly difficult problem seriously.
Because everything is in his plan.
Who is Wang Zhixin?
Served as the commander-in-chief of the East Factory for more than ten years!
There are more tricks than a hornet's nest.
He may not be able to do something well, but he will never mess it up.
The ultimate goal of mining is to make money.
Wang Zhixin’s principle in making money is to cast a wide net rather than just fleece one sheep.
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