Chapter 2765
Chapter 2765
Chapter 2765
In the Ming Dynasty, the transportation of public grain from the south to the north was mainly divided into two parts: sea transportation and water transportation.From the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, the annual volume of water grain transportation was about 400 million shi, of which 21% came from South Zhili and Zhejiang.In addition to grain, the five prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions also had to bear the so-called "white grain" exclusively for the court and Beijing officials, which amounted to [-] shi per year.
The Ming Dynasty stipulated that the full collection of grain and water should not be reduced or exempted, and it should not be converted into gold, silver or other commodities except in the case of major disasters or obstruction of water transportation.Including freight, ship repair costs, personnel consumption, etc., all are borne by the grain households, and they are collected according to the increase in consumption of regular grain.
In this way, a huge room for manipulation was left for the accumulation of corruption by governments at all levels. Consumption and miscellaneous factions in various names emerged in an endless stream, even several times more than the normal payment amount.
Each prefecture has officials from the Ministry of Households and the Cao Mansion to take command, and below the prefectures and counties, the grain chiefs are responsible for the collection and transportation.
However, once the public grain suffers various damages during transportation, or fails to pass the official inspection because of lack of money to deal with the blackmail of officials, the loss caused will be fully borne by the carrier.As a result, people who were forced to break up their families and die are everywhere among the people, and the entire water transportation system has also become an accelerator for officials to force people to rebel.
Cao Kun, the food chief, is a typical victim.When he was in his teens, he was forced to inherit his father's position as food chief.And his father's resignation was not a normal handover, because the boat capsized on the river during a grain transportation, and thousands of grains sank into the river. His father couldn't bear the loss, so he simply chose to flee, and disappeared without a trace.
The person involved ran away, but the debt could not follow.The so-called father's debt is paid by the son. Cao Kun does not want the whole family to go to jail, so he has to bear this debt.Since the day he took office, he has owed a large amount of money to the government, and he can only slowly repay the debt through years of continuous corvée, and he has been working for seven years now.
The dossier does not mention how the Special Liaison Office established contact with Cao Kun, but it can be inferred from the information between the lines that it is likely that Cao Kun had the intention of taking the initiative to inform, and was then transferred to the Special Liaison Office to handle the matter. thing.
The incident that Cao Kun wanted to inform the Haihan officials was also related to water transportation and land requisition.
In 1654, the Ming Dynasty surrendered to Haihan. Although Shanghai Han will inherit the dominant position of Ming Dynasty in name, taking over the management system of such a huge country cannot be completed in a short period of time. Many regions and departments still continue the rule of the Ming Dynasty. mode of operation.In order to achieve a smooth transition, Haihan also had to acquiesce to this situation.
The water transport affairs of the Ming Dynasty were managed by the Governor of Water Transport located in Huai'an Mansion in South Zhili. Yuli canal, but also has the right to manage local affairs along the canal.
Under the Governor of Water Transport, there are civil officials such as Li Cao participating in politics, patrolling the censor, doctor, Jiandui, Li Xing, and chief officer. There is also an army organization, under the jurisdiction of military officers such as generals and commanders. The number of civil and military officials is about two to three hundred. people.During the period when the establishment was the largest, there were as many as 12 guards under Water Transport.Of course, how many short positions are used to deceive the imperial court budget, so it is impossible to count the truth.
But even during the reign of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty, there were still tens of thousands of personnel in the storage, shipbuilding, and Wei Cao soldiers under the Cao Mansion.If the people along the canal rely on the water transportation system for their livelihood, then this number may have to be multiplied several times.
Once such a large organization stops functioning, it may affect the livelihood of tens of thousands of people and cause social unrest.Moreover, the northern region still needs to import materials from the south through water transport, so it is necessary to ensure that the water transport system can continue to operate smoothly.
And Haihan wanted to replace the original system, obviously not by sending a few officials to take it over, just changing the signboard of the yamen would have an effect.Therefore, after Haihan took over Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it has not taken any action on the water transport system for the time being. It still keeps its previous establishment and continues to operate as usual.
But because of this, Haihan's attitude probably caused some people to misunderstand, thinking that Haihan could not fully control the water transportation system due to various fears, so he could take advantage of this extraordinary period to make some moves for personal gain, or Create some trouble for Haihan.
In the second half of last year, Cao Kun discovered that there were many problems on the canal from Suzhou to Huai'an during a mission to escort grain northward.
The most important issue is the calculation of deduction and loss on the way.It is nothing new to fish for oil and water in the process of water transportation in the name of loss, but in the past, there were special personnel from the Caofu Yamen to watch over it, and generally they would not do it too exaggeratedly. Forget it, there is at least [-]% more to be transported to the north.
But now the grain transport ship has not yet passed Huai'an, about [-]% of the grain has been secretly cut off in the name of loss.According to Cao Kun, in the middle of the night, he saw local guards boarding ships to unload food in an organized manner, and he was warned not to speak out.
If such a situation occurred before, the carrier must be responsible, and if it fails, it will have to compensate for the loss like Cao Kun's father did, but now the main messenger behind the organization of this kind of action has found a more important person to prevent the matter from being exposed. A good excuse is to put the blame on Hai Han.
The shortage of goods arriving in the north is because some of them were seized by Haihan on the way.If you don't subscribe, let alone grain, the entire water transportation may be interrupted.Anyone who thinks there is a problem should go to Hai Han to negotiate with him.
Although such a reason is far-fetched, it happens to be very effective.Those who are dissatisfied with this will only listen to the rumors and put this account directly on Hai Han's head.Those who have doubts may not have the channels to find out whether Hai Han has ever acted like this.
The Caofu Yamen no longer has the obligation of loyalty to the Ming court, and the Ming court has also lost its due control over the Caofu Yamen, and the entire water transportation system has become a black hole without supervision.So as long as it drags on for three to five months, these losses will become unverifiable muddled accounts, and the benefits will naturally flow into the pockets of some master messengers.
The most terrible thing is that even if the officials sent by Haihan to these areas to take over administrative affairs find out the tricks, there is no better way to deal with it, and they can only pretend to be deaf and dumb.Because once the water transport system is thoroughly investigated and punished, it will affect the interests of too many people, and even affect the normal operation of the water transport. If the so-called food and clothing of millions of water workers is to affect the livelihood of a large number of people, who will Can you afford such a responsibility?
(End of this chapter)
In the Ming Dynasty, the transportation of public grain from the south to the north was mainly divided into two parts: sea transportation and water transportation.From the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, the annual volume of water grain transportation was about 400 million shi, of which 21% came from South Zhili and Zhejiang.In addition to grain, the five prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions also had to bear the so-called "white grain" exclusively for the court and Beijing officials, which amounted to [-] shi per year.
The Ming Dynasty stipulated that the full collection of grain and water should not be reduced or exempted, and it should not be converted into gold, silver or other commodities except in the case of major disasters or obstruction of water transportation.Including freight, ship repair costs, personnel consumption, etc., all are borne by the grain households, and they are collected according to the increase in consumption of regular grain.
In this way, a huge room for manipulation was left for the accumulation of corruption by governments at all levels. Consumption and miscellaneous factions in various names emerged in an endless stream, even several times more than the normal payment amount.
Each prefecture has officials from the Ministry of Households and the Cao Mansion to take command, and below the prefectures and counties, the grain chiefs are responsible for the collection and transportation.
However, once the public grain suffers various damages during transportation, or fails to pass the official inspection because of lack of money to deal with the blackmail of officials, the loss caused will be fully borne by the carrier.As a result, people who were forced to break up their families and die are everywhere among the people, and the entire water transportation system has also become an accelerator for officials to force people to rebel.
Cao Kun, the food chief, is a typical victim.When he was in his teens, he was forced to inherit his father's position as food chief.And his father's resignation was not a normal handover, because the boat capsized on the river during a grain transportation, and thousands of grains sank into the river. His father couldn't bear the loss, so he simply chose to flee, and disappeared without a trace.
The person involved ran away, but the debt could not follow.The so-called father's debt is paid by the son. Cao Kun does not want the whole family to go to jail, so he has to bear this debt.Since the day he took office, he has owed a large amount of money to the government, and he can only slowly repay the debt through years of continuous corvée, and he has been working for seven years now.
The dossier does not mention how the Special Liaison Office established contact with Cao Kun, but it can be inferred from the information between the lines that it is likely that Cao Kun had the intention of taking the initiative to inform, and was then transferred to the Special Liaison Office to handle the matter. thing.
The incident that Cao Kun wanted to inform the Haihan officials was also related to water transportation and land requisition.
In 1654, the Ming Dynasty surrendered to Haihan. Although Shanghai Han will inherit the dominant position of Ming Dynasty in name, taking over the management system of such a huge country cannot be completed in a short period of time. Many regions and departments still continue the rule of the Ming Dynasty. mode of operation.In order to achieve a smooth transition, Haihan also had to acquiesce to this situation.
The water transport affairs of the Ming Dynasty were managed by the Governor of Water Transport located in Huai'an Mansion in South Zhili. Yuli canal, but also has the right to manage local affairs along the canal.
Under the Governor of Water Transport, there are civil officials such as Li Cao participating in politics, patrolling the censor, doctor, Jiandui, Li Xing, and chief officer. There is also an army organization, under the jurisdiction of military officers such as generals and commanders. The number of civil and military officials is about two to three hundred. people.During the period when the establishment was the largest, there were as many as 12 guards under Water Transport.Of course, how many short positions are used to deceive the imperial court budget, so it is impossible to count the truth.
But even during the reign of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty, there were still tens of thousands of personnel in the storage, shipbuilding, and Wei Cao soldiers under the Cao Mansion.If the people along the canal rely on the water transportation system for their livelihood, then this number may have to be multiplied several times.
Once such a large organization stops functioning, it may affect the livelihood of tens of thousands of people and cause social unrest.Moreover, the northern region still needs to import materials from the south through water transport, so it is necessary to ensure that the water transport system can continue to operate smoothly.
And Haihan wanted to replace the original system, obviously not by sending a few officials to take it over, just changing the signboard of the yamen would have an effect.Therefore, after Haihan took over Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it has not taken any action on the water transport system for the time being. It still keeps its previous establishment and continues to operate as usual.
But because of this, Haihan's attitude probably caused some people to misunderstand, thinking that Haihan could not fully control the water transportation system due to various fears, so he could take advantage of this extraordinary period to make some moves for personal gain, or Create some trouble for Haihan.
In the second half of last year, Cao Kun discovered that there were many problems on the canal from Suzhou to Huai'an during a mission to escort grain northward.
The most important issue is the calculation of deduction and loss on the way.It is nothing new to fish for oil and water in the process of water transportation in the name of loss, but in the past, there were special personnel from the Caofu Yamen to watch over it, and generally they would not do it too exaggeratedly. Forget it, there is at least [-]% more to be transported to the north.
But now the grain transport ship has not yet passed Huai'an, about [-]% of the grain has been secretly cut off in the name of loss.According to Cao Kun, in the middle of the night, he saw local guards boarding ships to unload food in an organized manner, and he was warned not to speak out.
If such a situation occurred before, the carrier must be responsible, and if it fails, it will have to compensate for the loss like Cao Kun's father did, but now the main messenger behind the organization of this kind of action has found a more important person to prevent the matter from being exposed. A good excuse is to put the blame on Hai Han.
The shortage of goods arriving in the north is because some of them were seized by Haihan on the way.If you don't subscribe, let alone grain, the entire water transportation may be interrupted.Anyone who thinks there is a problem should go to Hai Han to negotiate with him.
Although such a reason is far-fetched, it happens to be very effective.Those who are dissatisfied with this will only listen to the rumors and put this account directly on Hai Han's head.Those who have doubts may not have the channels to find out whether Hai Han has ever acted like this.
The Caofu Yamen no longer has the obligation of loyalty to the Ming court, and the Ming court has also lost its due control over the Caofu Yamen, and the entire water transportation system has become a black hole without supervision.So as long as it drags on for three to five months, these losses will become unverifiable muddled accounts, and the benefits will naturally flow into the pockets of some master messengers.
The most terrible thing is that even if the officials sent by Haihan to these areas to take over administrative affairs find out the tricks, there is no better way to deal with it, and they can only pretend to be deaf and dumb.Because once the water transport system is thoroughly investigated and punished, it will affect the interests of too many people, and even affect the normal operation of the water transport. If the so-called food and clothing of millions of water workers is to affect the livelihood of a large number of people, who will Can you afford such a responsibility?
(End of this chapter)