My Daming New Empire

Page 545

Events, places, people.

It is impossible for a big case or a small case without a tacit cooperation and common interests.

Shandong officials will not all have a black conscience, and they have reached such a tacit understanding, which is definitely not something Ma Qi can do.

Zhu Zhanji even suspected that Ma Qi was just a greedy fool.

His corruption is just a product of a conspiracy, and a pair of invisible hands are pushing him to do so.

Zhu Zhanji has such doubts. Of course, it is not that he is smarter than others, but that others want to settle the matter more. Only he wants to take advantage of the situation and wish that the case will be bigger and better.

Without the cooperation of Shandong officials, how could Ma Qi swallow hundreds of thousands of shi of grain, choking him to death.

And in later generations, he has seen many such cases hidden behind the scenes.

At this time, the Lijian escorted Ma Qi, who was in a state of despair, back to Yingtian Mansion from Ningbo.

After Xie Kuang arrived in Ningbo, he strictly followed Zhu Zhanji's instructions, directly sealed all the accounts of the transshipment department, and asked Daming Development Bank and commercial banks to provide all the accounts of the transshipment department.

These days, he has found out more than half of the money that Ma Qi has worked so hard to earn over the years, kept [-]% for himself, and sent the rest to the palace by the Counseling Department.

Of course, this [-]% cannot be swallowed by him alone. People in all links will not fail, and the eunuchs in the air should also be filial, but at least, he can personally get about [-]%.

This is already a considerable amount of gold and silver. It is difficult for countless people to earn so much silver in a lifetime, but he has gained so much in just a few days of hard work.

Therefore, in the internal surveillance system, everyone is willing to do this kind of inspection of corrupt officials' imperial envoys.

Moreover, these people are more vicious when targeting their own people, and they will never let the other party have a chance to make a comeback.

Ma Qi was escorted into the Neikusi Lijian Yamen on the west side of the palace, and locked in a small room alone.

Until this time, although he felt sorry for the money he had worked so hard to earn in his life, he never worried about his life.

He has handed over almost all the money, including the dry shares he holds in the businesses of many merchants.Now he only left a pension fund of several thousand taels of silver in an account opened in the name of his nephew in the Daming Commercial Bank.

He didn't think this case was serious until now, maybe it was part of the food that was given to the victims, anyway, the money has now returned to the royal family's internal treasury.

It is impossible to make a comeback. He is almost fifty, because he has been away for a long time, and his relationship with the prince and grandson is very ordinary.

The best result is to guard the Xiaoling Mausoleum, he is most afraid that he will be sent to the central capital to guard the mausoleum, where is far less prosperous than Yingtian Mansion.

He was imprisoned in the yamen of the Supervisor of Ceremonies until evening, when a young eunuch brought him a meal and let him use the toilet in the courtyard, then locked him into the room again.

He used to disdain such a little eunuch, but at this time he could only salute and said: "Can you send me a few residence newspapers, so that I can pass the time."

The little eunuch showed a shy smile. "Fire ban in the palace, I'm afraid it won't work today. I'll bring you food tomorrow morning, and I'll bring you a few copies of the mansion report."

"Thank you." At this moment, he felt that this little eunuch was extremely cute, but it's a pity, if he was still in power, he would be able to promote him.

The facilities in the house are simple, except for a wooden bed and a somewhat damp bedding, there is nothing left.

He knew that for a high-ranking eunuch like him, if the emperor didn't come, it would be Wang Yan who would read out his punishment.

But there won't be a result so soon, he will live here for some time.

Lying in the house bored, after a while Ma Qi was a little drowsy and about to fall asleep, but heard some movement in the yard.

He sat up suddenly and listened to the voices outside.

The door was opened, and several internal eunuchs from the Advisory Department came in, and one of them held a lantern in his hand, which gave a glimmer of light to the dark room.

"Ma Zhongguan, His Majesty has handed over this case to His Highness. His Highness has been thinking of you since he came back after dark. Please..."

Following a few eunuchs, they entered Miyagi from Xihua Gate, and then walked along the lane from the west to the Advisory Department at Donghua Gate.

Along the way, Ma Qi tried to strike up a conversation from time to time, but none of them paid any attention to him.

This made him feel a sense of sadness of being bullied by dogs. Could it be that his time is really over.

In the Advisory Department, Zhu Zhanji sat on a large single sofa with a warm smile on his face.

Ma Qi didn't dare to be negligent, she knelt down on both knees as soon as she entered the door, kowtowed and said: "Slave Ma Qi, you deserve to die, Your Highness, please forgive me."

Zhu Zhanji said with a gentle smile: "Come, come, sit down and talk. Li Liang, serve tea."

Liu Wan helped Ma Qi to the sofa on the right side of Zhu Zhanji. Ma Qi was trembling, with her left buttocks resting on the sofa.

After he sat down, Zhu Zhanji picked up a confession and said: "Gu just finished reading this confession, and there are still a few questions in it that I don't understand, so I hope Ma Zhongguan can talk to Gu."

Ma Qi hurriedly said: "His Royal Highness, please, I will definitely know everything."

"From August 14th of Yongle, when the first batch of rice was shipped to Shandong, until March of 17th Yongle, you have been greedy for more than 30 shi of grain, which is also 8 to 10 taels of silver. In addition, you bought it at a low price. The profit from the high price is more than [-] taels of silver. The money is very stable, even if you are lonely, you will not be angry because of it, but why did you dare not ship a single grain since March last year, when there was no harvest? When you go to the disaster area, starving to death is a small matter, but attracting people to rebel is a major matter, so you are not worried?"

"Your Highness, the servants work hard, that is, to earn some hard money, and they didn't have such a big appetite. It's just that the grain harvest in Shandong was poor the year before, and the price of food skyrocketed. Because the servants shipped a large amount of grain to Shandong, they became a thorn in the eyes of many people!"

"These words are new, who can threaten you?"

The internal eunuchs formed a separate line, and they were also the royal family's servants. No minister of civil or military affairs could control them.Of course, because they are attached to the imperial power, their power is given by the royal family, so as long as the royal family wants to deal with the eunuchs, they don't need the national law at all, they only need the family law to deal with them.

Ma Qi knew very well that his questioning this time was related to his fate, and he didn't dare to hide it, but he was unwilling to be marginalized from now on, so he wanted to find some ghosts to help him protect him from the wind and rain.

He looked around and said in a low voice: "His Royal Highness, please clean up the left and right, and the servants should make it clear to His Highness."

Zhu Zhanji waved his hand, and only Li Liang, Liu Wan, and Sun Lin were left in the room.

Then Ma Qi said: "Your Highness, in the 17th year of Yongle, when the slaves returned to Beijing to report on their duties, they met His Royal Highness Zhao Wang. His Royal Highness Zhao invited the slaves to come to the house. Not only Zhao Wang's retainers, but also Shandong Commander Liu Zhong, as well as several major grain merchants in Ningbo and Shandong..."

The smile on Zhu Zhanji's face remained unchanged, but there was a huge wave in his heart.He didn't expect that his third uncle would get involved in this matter.

Speaking of this incident, he was also responsible. The Ming clan was originally not allowed to do business, but since he broke this rule.

During Zheng He's voyages to the West, he made a lot of wealth. With this opening, more and more people did business in Xungui.

It's just that King Zhao has been involved in the trade with Japan and made a lot of money. He never thought that he would even take a fancy to the petty profit of the grain business...

"Who are these big grain merchants? What did Uncle Zhao Wang tell you? Tell me all of them..."

Chapter 34 Clearing the Context

Since the early years of Yongle, Daming has gradually stabilized, and the price of grain in Daming has been falling all the way.

The price of rice was four qian for one stone at the time of Jingnan, and then fell to two qian for one stone and seven or eight cents.Wheat is slightly more expensive, but only three qian denarii.

In the 13th year of Yongle, after Zhu Zhanji proposed to transport a large amount of grain from Nanyang, the price of rice in Daming was stabilized at two cents and five cents.

The drop in the price of rice has also affected wheat, because as long as the people can survive, they don't particularly care about the taste.The price of wheat is too high, and people will naturally switch to rice.

Today's wheat price basically does not exceed three renminbi, which also makes the people's enthusiasm for farming very low.