1233 Disaster, the Emperor is going to compromise
Wang Jinling had not discussed with the Ninth Uncle beforehand about putting pressure on the Emperor, and Feng Qingchen had not written a special letter to tell the Ninth Uncle, because Feng Qingchen believed that the Ninth Uncle must have known about this and would fully cooperate.
Don’t ask Feng Qingchen why she believes it. She just believes in the Ninth Prince Uncle. Even though he is thousands of miles away, he will not abandon her. This trust comes from the feelings that the Ninth Prince Uncle has for her.
Facts have proved that Feng Qingchen was right. Although the Ninth Uncle was not in the Imperial City, he knew everything that happened in the Imperial City, including Feng Qingchen's arrogant words in the palace and Xia Wan's betrayal.
The Ninth Prince just watched without taking any action. It was not that he didn't want to help Feng Qingchen, but Feng Qingchen handled the situation very well, and he also wanted to see how far Feng Qingchen could go.
However, when he saw Wang Jinling inciting the students and forcing the emperor to give Feng Qingchen justice, the Ninth Prince decided not to stand by and watch any longer.
"You're finally willing to show your claws. I'm afraid only Qingchen can make you display your strength regardless of everything." The Ninth Prince didn't know what kind of mentality he had when he said this, but he felt uncomfortable anyway.
He will protect his woman himself. Wang Jinling is really nosy.
"Since you want to play, then play it big. If you don't empty the national treasury, the emperor will definitely not be at peace." The Ninth Prince picked up his pen and wrote a few letters to several provincial governors under him.
The Emperor was still worried about the Xiling incident. He had finally gained the upper hand and accused Yaohua of murdering the heir of Prince Chun's Mansion. Just as he was about to free his hands to snatch the token from Feng Qingchen's hand, memorials from all over the country were delivered to his desk one after another.
"Ningchuan County was hit by a flood, hundreds of people were killed or injured, and thousands of acres of fertile land were submerged. We request tax reduction and relief, and funds for disaster relief."
"Anya County is suffering from drought. Today's autumn harvest is expected to be a total failure. We request tax reduction and allowance for disaster relief."
"The land in Yiwei Town has turned upside down, countless houses have collapsed, and the people have suffered heavy losses..."
"Shandong famine..."
"There's trouble in the northwest..."
…
There were floods in the east and drought in the west. In addition, cattle plague broke out in several counties, causing heavy losses to the people. Bandits were rampant in some places. Even the former crown prince who had just been crowned king submitted a memorial to the emperor, complaining about his poverty, saying that he had just arrived in Jiangnan and his foundation was unstable, and that there were many affairs in Jiangnan, and he demanded that the emperor temporarily suspend taxes.
One after another, memorials reporting disasters were piled on the emperor's desk. When the emperor saw these memorials, his eyes widened.
He knew that disasters occurred in many places every year, but local officials would mostly conceal or underreport them for the sake of political achievements. But what about now?
Not only did these people not conceal the truth, they actually magnified the disaster, complained bitterly, and asked the national treasury for money, not caring at all about their year-end assessments.
The emperor could think that one or two things were coincidences, but if dozens of them happened in a row and the emperor still thought it was a coincidence, then he would have no right to sit in this position.
There is definitely someone behind this, and the purpose is self-evident.
"You bastard." The emperor was so angry that he threw the memorials and cursed, but the situation was far more serious than he had imagined. For several days in a row, the emperor received reports of disasters from all over Dongling.
Insect plagues, disease disasters, mountain torrents and collapses, one after another, it seemed that the entire Dongling was in disaster. The most terrifying thing was that all the reports of disasters were somehow leaked.
Those students and scholars had gained fame last time, and now they were like chicken blood. Without Wang Jinling saying much, they spontaneously went to the Imperial College, the Imperial Academy, and the palace gate to discuss political affairs.
In addition to the wave after wave of disaster reports, the Beijing officials in Dongling also seemed to be very unlucky. Today, this official was seen visiting a brothel, tomorrow that official was seen causing trouble in the backyard, and some trivial matters of accepting bribes before were also brought up.
Officials in the capital were all so busy that they had no time to care about the reports from the disaster-stricken areas. The county magistrates and governors-general who had reported the disaster had received no news from above, and so they kept sending in reports complaining about the disaster one after another.
The emperor was so busy that his head was spinning. The state affairs he had to deal with increased exponentially. Not long after the disaster reports from various places were submitted, the military ran into problems again. No one knew who had caused the trouble.
The Ministry of War withheld military supplies and the generals in the army intercepted military supplies. This time...
But it really stirred up a hornet's nest!
Silver, silver. Officials from all over the country either asked the emperor for silver or said that they could not pay this year's taxes and asked the emperor to reduce them. The emperor dismissed a group of officials in anger, but the newly appointed officials were still the same, continuing to ask for silver and tax reductions.
Because those disasters were not fake, although they were exaggerated in some places, some counties were indeed very poor, too poor to pay taxes. It was just that local officials in previous years concealed the matter and created the illusion of peace and prosperity.
The newly appointed officials have no money and no foundation. If the court does not reduce taxes and allocate funds for disaster relief, they will definitely not be able to hold on to their positions and the people will definitely cause trouble.
The emperor was furious and sent a group of officials to investigate. At first, the officials were very confident that they would find out the truth, but soon they became corrupt along with the local officials. The reason was very simple...
The situation in most places is indeed bad, while in some other places, although exaggerated, there are also disasters. For example, if one acre of land is flooded, the local officials report a hundred acres, and the extra ninety-nine acres of compensation can be regarded as blatant embezzlement by them. The local officials will not keep the embezzled money alone, but distribute it among the various levels.
They do not exploit the people or accept bribes from their subordinates. They only think of ways to get money from the national treasury. Officials from top to bottom are of one mind, so it is not difficult to hide the truth from the emperor. The emperor is the Son of Heaven. He sits high up on the dragon throne. How could he know what kind of life the people are living?
As for those few stubborn officials who insist on exposing the truth, I'm sorry, you should report to the King of Hell. You have blocked their financial path, and that is a crime worthy of death.
The emperor was extremely worried. He knew that this must be the work of Wang Jinling, but he had no evidence. The disaster reports were not all exaggerated. More than 60% of them were true. It was just that the local officials had handled them themselves in the past and helped the emperor solve his problems, but now all of them were reported to the emperor.
As a responsible emperor, he couldn't ignore it, but there was no money in the treasury. Even if he wanted to do a good job, it would be useless without the money.
The emperor has summoned ministers every day these days, asking them to come up with a solution, but these ministers just try to smooth things over.
Is the emperor going to deal with this matter severely? Or is he going to deal with it severely?
No one can control natural disasters. In the past, these officials would find ways to solve the problem by asking local big families for help. Now that people don't want to do that, there's nothing wrong in asking the emperor for help.
Later, the Grand Tutor could no longer bear it. Seeing the white hair on the emperor's temples, he sighed and said to the emperor privately that whoever leaked this matter should be held responsible for solving it.
The implication is that the emperor should find Wang Jinling, let Wang Jinling come forward, and make those officials quiet down. They should do the same thing as before, otherwise...
The national treasury allocated this money and reduced these taxes, but they couldn't expect to make any money in those years, and there was also the problem of military disasters...
Alas. All the private transactions in the officialdom were exposed to the emperor at this moment, but the emperor was not omnipotent. If the officials under him did not work for the emperor, the emperor would be exhausted...
Under such circumstances, let alone asking Feng Qingchen for the token, the emperor wouldn't even have time to sleep...
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