"Your Majesty, the people from the East Factory in Southern Zhili have already gone to verify it, but there is no news yet!" Gao Shiming replied.
"Well," Chongzhen nodded, "During the time when Wang Zhixin is away from the capital, you must manage the East Factory well. Do what you should do and don't touch what you shouldn't do."
"I obey your order!" Gao Shiming bent down and knelt, then kowtowed to Chongzhen again.
Chongzhen continued to ask: "You are the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department and you know everything about the court. I want to ask you, how is the currency reform going in various provinces?"
When Gao Shiming heard Chongzhen asking about currency reform, his heart skipped a beat.
He paused for a moment and then said, "In reply to your Majesty, the situations and progress of each province are different. Some provinces are advancing quickly, while others are advancing slowly. There are also some very few provinces where progress...is not going very smoothly."
Very rare? Not going well?
Chongzhen suddenly had a bad feeling.
The people below always report good news but not bad news, and the number of very few provinces they mention is not small.
The real meaning of not going smoothly is most likely that things are not going well.
Chongzhen asked gloomily, "How many of them are extremely rare?"
"The four provinces of Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong!" Gao Shiming answered while secretly observing Chongzhen with his eyes.
As expected, he guessed it right!
Chongzhen's face darkened even more than before. He questioned, "There are thirteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty, and four of them are not progressing smoothly. How can you be so ashamed to say that it is a very rare case?"
Gao Shiming knelt on the ground and didn't dare to answer.
It’s not that he doesn’t want to tell the truth, but the truth will only cause Chongzhen more trouble.
The source of resistance to the currency reform was neither the court nor the people below, but the gentry and businessmen among the court and the people.
The power of local governments comes from the imperial court, and their benefits come from gentry and businessmen.
There is a conflict between power and interests now, and the most difficult situation is for local governments.
They dare not defy authority, nor can they lose their interests.
So they all used the word "drag".
As for how long it can be delayed...
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know, just keep dragging it out!
Let’s talk about it later if we can’t delay any longer.
Above the county magistrate is the prefect, above the prefect is the prefect, above the prefect is the governor and the governor-general.
Above the governor and the governor-general, there is a primary person responsible for currency reform: the Minister of Revenue Fang Yuegong!
If the sky falls, there will be people above to hold it up, and the lower you go, the safer it will be.
It is precisely because of these complicated reasons that Gao Shiming chose to report good news rather than bad news.
Seeing Gao Shiming kneeling without saying anything, Chongzhen asked again: "What does 'not going well' mean?"
Gao Shiming couldn't evade the question, so he could only tell the truth: "Your Majesty, the total amount of Ming Yuanbao exchanged by these four provinces is less than 20 million. In other poorer places, each province has more than 10 million."
Chongzhen lowered his head and began to think about countermeasures.
The currency reform was successfully implemented in Shaanxi because of the presence of Cao Huachun and Lu Daqi.
pity.
There was only one Cao Huachun and Lu Daqi in the Ming Dynasty.
They don't have the ability to clone themselves.
Even if they have the ability to clone themselves, sending them to Jiangnan may not necessarily help implement the currency reform smoothly.
Because the situations in Jiangnan and Shaanxi are different.
Five million taels of silver can make Shaanxi merchants stunned.
When it came to Jiangnan, the same five million taels of silver could not even be found on the tables of Jiangnan merchants.
In the eyes of Jiangnan landlord Lao Cai, this money is not money at all, it is just a drop in the bucket!
What to do?
After thinking for a while, Chongzhen suddenly came up with a very bold idea: restart the party struggle!
The court had difficulty in implementing policies because party struggles had shifted from the court to local areas.
In some local government offices, five officials belonged to four different parties.
On the surface, everyone seems to be living in peace, but in reality they are fighting openly and secretly, which leads to a breakdown in the implementation of government policies.
The officials in power want to implement currency reform and create political achievements.
In order to prevent the officials in charge from gaining credit, other officials will try every means to hinder them.
Needless to say, the gentry and merchants behind them will resist the currency reform by refusing to exchange silver coins.
This is also an important reason why the currency reform in the four provinces of Jiangnan has progressed slowly.
To solve this problem, we must first resolve party disputes.
Party strife is a contradiction.
It is well known that conflicts never disappear, they only shift.
Since conflicts can be transferred from the court to local areas, they can also be transferred from local areas back to the court.
There is only one way for conflicts to manifest themselves in the court: factional strife!
Chongzhen stood up and looked into the hall.
Wang Chengen immediately understood what Chongzhen meant, and the palace maids and eunuchs in the hall waved their hands to signal them to leave immediately.
Just as Shen Peiqing was about to leave, Chongzhen stopped her softly, "Concubine Zhao doesn't have to leave, just stay here."
"I obey your command." Shen Peiqing found a corner and stayed there motionless.
After making sure that there were no other outsiders in the hall, Chongzhen walked up to Gao Shiming and whispered, "I heard that you accepted gifts from many officials!"
Gao Shiming was stunned at first, then his pupils suddenly shrank and his whole body felt cold.
The body seemed to be fixed in place by something and could not move at all.
Then sweat began to appear on his forehead, and the sweat slid down his stiff cheeks and dripped onto his lapels, forming wet marks.
He pressed his hands hard on the ground, his knuckles turning white as bones from the excessive force.
"Your Majesty," Gao Shiming opened his mouth with difficulty and answered in a hoarse voice, "I did accept gifts from some people. Please forgive me, Your Majesty!"
Chongzhen sneered and said nothing.
Is he asking about receiving gifts?
Are there any eunuchs in the Imperial Household Department who don’t accept gifts?
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
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