The issue of donating official positions did not end with the auction, but continued to spread like a virus.
Those who offer bribes are busy offering bribes.
Those who take bribes are busy collecting money.
Those investigating bribery are busy collecting clues and evidence.
Early morning of November 25th.
After Song Quan got up, he called the housekeeper over.
"Master." The butler bowed to him respectfully.
"Have you packed your travel expenses and luggage?" Song Quan asked.
"In reply to the master, everything has been packed up." The butler replied.
"Then hurry up and take your people with you," Song Quan said solemnly, "After you arrive in the capital, go directly to a shop called Quanjun Liquor Shop near the Sixi Archway to find Manager Wang, and do the rest according to my instructions."
"Master, rest assured. I will rush to the capital as quickly as possible and get everything done."
"Well," Song Quan said worriedly, "Be careful when you pass through Shandong, there are refugees causing chaos there."
"Don't worry, sir. I will find a way to get around that."
"Well," Song Quan nodded, "Go ahead."
"I'm leaving." The butler knelt down, kowtowed, and turned to leave.
The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and Song Quan has to give the money to Xie Sanbin before the New Year.
As for the means, it is also very simple.
Since the money he had to give to Xie Sanbin was so huge and the distance was so far, if he used the old method to send the money, it would not only be time-consuming and laborious but also prone to mistakes.
His method was to exchange all the money for silver notes, seal them inside porcelain, and send them to Xie Sanbin's subordinates under the guise of sending ordinary gifts.
The other party will hand it over to Xie Sanbin intact.
As for how Xie Sanbin divided the accounts, it was not something that he, the Imperial Inspector of Salt, could know.
After the butler left, Song Quan finished his meal, put on his official uniform, and rode in a sedan chair to the outskirts of Yangzhou.
The soldiers transporting silver were loading tax silver and silver donated for official positions onto carts, preparing to send them to the capital.
According to convention, the silver should be loaded onto ships and transported to the capital by water.
But the cold weather brought by the Little Ice Age caused the canal water to freeze.
For this reason, the grain transport soldiers had to abandon the water route and transport silver by land.
(Lingao County Annals: On the 15th day of December in the 9th year of Chongzhen, Lingao County had rain and snow for three days and nights, and all the trees died. Andong County Annals: In April of the 15th year of Chongzhen, heavy snow killed the crops, and there was a heavy frost at the beginning of summer. Lingao is now Lingao County, Hainan, and Andong County is now Lianshui County, Huai'an, Jiangsu. Hainan Island had rain and snow in December, and Huai'an, Jiangsu had frost at the beginning of summer, which shows how cold the climate was.)
After watching the canal transport soldiers leave, Song Quan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
Although the job of inspecting salt was not easy, he completed the task excellently.
Not only did it make up for the deficit in the national treasury, but it also allowed officials from all levels to make money.
"It's bad," Song Quan suddenly thought of something big.
He was only thinking about giving money to Xie Sanbin and forgot to give money to Chongzhen.
This is a big deal!
The money in the national treasury belongs to the country, not to Chongzhen personally.
Chongzhen's personal money was all in the imperial treasury.
Thinking of this, Song Quan could no longer sit still and immediately returned to the post station to count the silver bills.
After counting, Song Quan began to think about how much money to give to Chongzhen and how to give it.
Giving money to superiors as bribes is a skill, while giving money to the emperor to "keep his mouth shut" is both a skill and an art.
During this salt inspection, he harvested a total of six million taels.
Among them, three million taels were given to the Minister of Revenue Xie Sanbin by the butler.
The collection of so much money would have been possible with the help of Donglin Party officials.
As the actual leader of the Donglin Party, Xie Sanbin wanted to give benefits to Donglin Party officials.
Logically speaking, Qian Qianyi should be the leader of Donglin, but he was too old and had no official position, so he was only the leader in name only.
In actual actions, many Donglin Party officials began to follow Xie Sanbin's lead.
Song Quan had no intention of keeping the remaining three million taels of silver for himself.
He could inspect salt in Nanzhili, collect taxes, and sell official positions.
Nanjing officials have made great efforts.
The end of the year is approaching, and the gifts should still be given.
Not to mention more, at least you have to pay 500,000 taels of silver.
With 2.5 million taels of silver left, how much would be appropriate to give to Chongzhen as a hush money?
After much deliberation, Song Quan decided to give Chongzhen 1.5 million taels of silver.
He can't take the lion's share.
What if one day the corruption is exposed?
He accounts for the majority of the profits, so Chongzhen will definitely be very angry and will be severely punished.
If Chongzhen took the majority, this matter might have been suppressed by Chongzhen.
In addition, he had maliciously framed his colleagues before, so he was saved by Chongzhen.
It is reasonable and moral to give money to Chongzhen as a token of appreciation.
"Yes, let's do it." After Song Quan understood this principle, he began to count the silver bills.
After counting the banknotes, he began to think about what name to use to send it.
First of all, this matter cannot be concealed, so it must be sent openly.
Secondly, the source of the money must be clear.
"This money came from salt merchants. We just need to embellish it by saying that the salt merchants raised funds and donated them to the court. Not only will it withstand investigation, but it will also gain the support of the salt merchants after it is spread out."
Um!
After making up his mind, Song Quan began to think about the original question.
Under what name should it be presented to the emperor?
Build a mausoleum for Chongzhen?
On the surface, it seemed like giving money to the emperor, but in fact it meant hoping for Chongzhen's death.
No, the nine clans are trembling!
Military expenses for the war in Liaodong?
Military expenses will be sent to the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War.
Chongzhen could not afford to lose a penny.
Build a palace?
Although there were some damaged parts in the Beijing palace, there was a war in Liaodong, and donating money to repair the palace at this time was tantamount to putting Chongzhen on the spot.
In what name should it be sent?
Song Quan fell into a long period of thought.
"Got it!" Song Quan had an idea. "Now the court has transferred all the armies to Liaodong for battle, leaving the capital empty. In order to prevent the Ji Si Incident from happening again, the Lianghuai salt merchants raised funds to strengthen the defense of the capital. In addition to the three major camps, there is also the Yongwei Camp responsible for the defense of the capital."
"The Brave Guards are His Majesty's private army. Giving them money is the same as giving it to His Majesty."
After figuring this out, Song Quan wrote an official document and sent someone to deliver it and the money to the capital.
On the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, the soldiers transporting silver arrived at Yuncheng County, Yanzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province.
Further ahead is the area of activity of the Yuyuan Army.
He was carrying a heavy burden and did not dare to move forward rashly.
The governor of the Grand Canal, Zhu Guobi, ordered the army to stop marching and sent scouts to inquire about the situation.
Zhu Guobi heaved a sigh of relief when he learned that Li Dingguo's 20,000 troops were stationed in Pucheng, seventy miles away.
Li Dingguo's task was to cooperate with Wang Fuzhi to quell the Yuyuan Uprising.
If the tax silver he was escorting was robbed by the rebels in Yuyuan, then Li Dingguo would have an unshirkable responsibility.
"Bring me a pen and paper. I want to write a letter to Wang Fuzhi and Li Dingguo, asking them to eliminate the rebels in this area and ensure that we can pass smoothly."
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