Chapter 1159: Example donation

Because of Han Jiang's family, Cheng Mengxian has a relatively close relationship with the Cao family.

But Cao Yong knew that the Cao family was not Cheng Mengxian's backer. He could take over the common affairs of the Cheng family as a side branch. The person standing behind Cheng Mengxian was definitely a person who was afraid of the Cheng family.

Although Cao Yong was the governor, he was not as good as the county magistrate as the current manager, and it may not have such a great deterrence to the Cheng family in Jiangnan.

Cao Yong sneered and put the letter aside.

A few years ago, I learned that when Cheng Mengxian was in the capital, he secretly threw himself into Prince Yong's mansion and met Li Wei. It is not surprising that he has begun to receive returns now.

Perhaps in Yongzheng's eyes, he was unwilling to let the salt merchants in Jiangnan support the obedient head of the family to rise; but for the clan, the side branches overpowered the legitimate branches, which was eye-catching.

It is not easy for a big family like the Cheng family that has been prosperous for a hundred years to take control of it?

Cheng Mengxian's life will definitely not be easy, but he did not ask for Han Jiang's head, so Cao Yong naturally would not be troublesome.

After all, he and Cheng Mengkun and Cheng Mengxing, who are the legitimate descendants of the Cheng family, are old friends, so there is no need to participate in the Cheng family affairs...

Cao Yong guessed well, but Cheng Mengxian's life was really hard.

After Cheng Mengkun passed away, the salt farm made mistakes every now and then, and the managers were passive and lazy. The elders in the clan tried to find out what he was right and wrong.

He knew that he had committed public anger, but he was not angry, but only helpless.

Although he was young and a little ambitious, he would not have pushed him to this position without the arrangements before his death.

The Cheng family had privately worshipped the prince of the capital in his early years. Cheng Mengkun was afraid that the emperor would pursue the debt, so he chose Cheng Mengxian, who was related to the royal family and had a relationship with the capital, to take over the clan affairs.

But everyone has selfish intentions. Even if Cheng Mengkun cares about his clans, he will not really want to hand over the clan rights and interests of his children and grandchildren. Therefore, Cheng Mengxian only "represents the head of the family". When Cheng Mengxian's legitimate son becomes an adult, he will return the head of the family back.

Cheng Mengxian knew Cheng Mengkun’s plan and knew that he had privately met several elders in the clan before his death, but he did not feel resentful. After all, if he could do this today, he would rely more on Cheng Mengkun to take care of him.

He also had arrogance and did not care about the family property of the Cheng family. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to take over the leadership of the Cheng family and create another foundation.

Who would have thought it was so difficult. Before the preparations began, the Cheng family's family began to drag him down.

Cheng Mengxian had no choice but to ask for help from Li Wei.

Li Wei was not only the governor of Zhejiang, but also in charge of the Liangjiang Salt Administration, and was the immediate boss of the Cheng family.

The day before Cheng Mengkun's "July 7" funeral was held, Li Wei went to Yangzhou for official duties. The next time during the Cheng family's funeral, Li Wei visited Cheng's house in person and worshiped one or two in front of the spiritual throne of Cheng Mengkun, the late head of the Cheng family.

The Cheng family was the first salt merchant in Jiangnan. The Cheng-kun Funeral, the major salt merchant families in Jiangnan, the Cao Transport Terminal, and the local officials and gentry in Yangzhou gathered together.

As a representative of the Cao family, Cao Song also visited Yangzhou to attend the funeral.

Li Wei's arrival added a lot of grief to the Cheng family and also supported Cheng Mengxing's face.

The Cheng family, who was originally full of righteous indignation and thought of various ways to oppose Cheng Mengxian, remembered the personal relationship between Cheng Mengxian and Li Wei, and the kindness between Cheng Mengxian and the Cao family in the capital.

After the funeral, Cheng Mengxian went to Jinyuan to meet Li Wei.

This place was originally an old house for an official and gentry. Because he was convicted in the early years of Kangxi, his property was confiscated into the official position. This place was temporarily established as a temporary office for the Liangjiang Salt Tax. People from the court, or officials who also served as the salt tax in Jiangnan, went to Yangzhou for business operations, and this place was where they settled.

Li Wei was talking to Cao Song.

The two are now in Hangzhou and the other in Jiangning, hundreds of miles apart, so it is not easy to meet each other.

Because there were no outsiders, the two of them said a little taboo, and talked about Nian Gengyao who was escorted back to Beijing.

"What will the emperor do?" Cao Song asked.

Although he served as a guard with Yongzheng and his ex for two years, he still could not speculate about the cold-faced emperor.

Li Wei thought for a while and said, "It should not be dealt with before the Wanshou Festival, but after the Wanshou Festival, it is hard to say..."

"Kill?" Cao Song asked in a low voice.

Although Yongzheng came to power, he rarely killed anyone when he was sentenced to death. Even if he was sentenced to the prison, he would probably be exempted from death easily.

Cao Song was not troublesome, but was worried about his cousin.

After all, the Nian family is the in-laws of his cousin. If Nian Gengyao affects the family, it will have some impact on the Cao family.

"If we discuss Nian Gengyao's crimes after the birthday, we may have a glimmer of hope. If there is no movement, then the emperor will have no intention of forgiveness..." Li Wei said.

Cao Song was a little puzzled and said, "This case is still delayed? Don't you say that the censor has already ordered 40 or 50 serious crimes for Nian Gengyao? If the case is not decided, what should I delay?"

Li Wei was a minister of Yongzheng's secret residence, and he had more to settle the royal affairs than Cao Song, the palace guard.

"Please let the imperial concubine die... If the imperial concubine is alive before the imperial concubine is alive, she will deal with the Nian family. Even if she leaves room, it will embarrass the imperial concubine..." Li Wei said.

The two were talking, and a servant came to report it, and Cheng Meng showed up.

Cheng Mengxian came to thank him. No matter how powerful the Cheng family is in Jiangnan, the merchants are merchants. People in the officialdom dare not offend the Cheng family, but they also look down on the Cheng family.

Li Wei and Cao Song were both local civil and military officials, and they made a special trip to Yangzhou to pay homage, just to serve Cheng Mengxian.

Cheng Mengxian knew that today, the pressure from Li and Cao could not completely calm the elders of the family, and they could think twice when encountering problems.

He solemnly thanked the two of them.

Li Wei said: "If you really want to thank me, don't say these empty words. It will be better than anything else to give the court a little more salt next year."

Cao Song also said, "I'm just making up the numbers, so I don't really think of it."

Cheng Meng was particularly grateful on the face, but felt a little embarrassed.

For his sake, the two civil and military officials had to express their feelings. He had prepared two silver notes and wanted to express his gratitude.

But after more than half a year of interactions, he also realized that these two people were tight and had no suitable names, so they would never charge cash.

He pondered for a moment and looked at Li Wei and said, "I heard that Shandong has a severe drought this year. I don't know how many people are hungry for feeding? Although the salt merchants in Jiangnan were in a low position, they dared not forget the lessons taught by the court for a day. Here is 20,000 taels of silver, which is the little force of the Cheng family to the court." As he spoke, he took out the silver notes and presented them to Li Wei with both hands.

Li Wei calmed down his expression and looked at Cheng Mengxian and said, "Is this what you really want?"

You should know that the Cheng family is the leader of the salt merchants. Cheng Mengxian did this not only to donate silver to the treasury, but also to Li Weixun’s salt merchants’ donation.

If the matter is handled well, Li Wei may be able to open up the gap in salt merchants, which is conducive to the development of salt affairs; even if the above results cannot be achieved, he can still collect a lot of money, alleviating the dilemma of the court without silver, which is considered a great contribution;

However, Cheng Mengxian, who is the first donation, also has to bear the pressure from his salt merchants.

Cheng Mengxian nodded without hesitation and said, "That's exactly what it is."

Li Wei did not accept the silver notes, but said: "Donating silver to the court is a good thing, but it cannot be so unclear; after a few days, with the constitution, I will accept your silver notes."

Cheng Mengxian couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this.

Now I have "donated" privately, and when others ask, I can still stammer. After all, it is normal for officials to ask for bribes from salt merchants, so it is abnormal to not be allowed.

If you really donate openly, let alone outside, the elders in the clan will make a fuss.

But he did not regret it. Since he wanted to treat Li Wei as his backer, he always had to give his efforts...

Cheng Mengxian donated silver, which was incompatible with Cao Yong in Zhili.

But he didn't know that in order to please Li Wei, Li Wei reported this to the imperial court, which caused a turmoil in the capital.

That is, when encountering natural disasters and man-made disasters, in addition to the court's relief, will it be necessary to raise funds from the people for relief?

The atmosphere of the court has been suppressed for a long time. It is rare to have a topic to argue about. Everyone must express their opinions.

Those who support Li Wei’s proposal are talked endlessly from the national point of view; those who oppose Li Wei’s proposal are worried that man-made disasters will arise after natural disasters, and the government will harm local people in the name of donating.

The debate in the court was lively, but Yongzheng saw that the ministers involved in the debate were clearly divided. Those who supported Li Wei's proposal were mostly officials from poor families; those who opposed Li Wei's proposal were mostly noble families.

Although he mentioned this matter with several princes, he said that Li Wei was whimsical; but in the end, he chose to support Li Wei.

So, two days before the Wanbao Festival, Cao Yong received a letter from the Thirteenth Prince.

That means that since the Zhejiang Governor’s Office has made donations for Shandong’s severe drought, other provinces can also use this example.

Seeing this, Cao Yong couldn't help but frown.

This year, the severe drought in Shandong is true, but the drought has also affected Zhili. There are two prefectures and sixteen counties in the east of Zhili, which have also reduced the yield of land and grain even lost harvest due to drought.

In the first two months, Cao Yong reported the letter of requesting for reduction and exemption of money and grain and relief to the affected prefectures and counties to the Ministry of Revenue. The Thirteenth Prince was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue and should also remember this.

Immediately, Cao Yong understood.

The Thirteenth Prince means that the court has no silver, and the relief silver for the two prefectures and sixteen counties is raised by Cao Yong himself.

This is different from the official donation of the court. If the court pays the donation, it will still be fame. If it spends hundreds or thousands of taels of silver to donate a family, it will be cheaper in life. Maybe the rich gentry will still take advantage in the eyes of them.

The local donations have no fame to sell, and they simply take out silver from Fushen's pocket.

Cao Yong could find a way or come forward for this matter, but it was difficult to bypass Tang Zhiyu, who was in charge of Zhili's finance, so he sent someone to the governor's office to ask Tang Zhiyu to come over and speak.

To Cao Yong's surprise, when Tang Zhiyu, who was born in a scholarly family, heard this proposal of donation, he was full of disagreement: "Absurd, how could the court pass this proposal? Isn't this just robbing the rich to help the poor? It's really undesirable!"

Cao Yong nodded and said, "If the operation is not good, it is easy to cause public grievances, so you have to think of a way to make them willing..."

Tang Zhiyu was not giving up and had already begun to list the harm of donating with Cao Yong.
Chapter completed!