Chapter 1541

Wang Yan didn't lie; he really didn't care where he went.

There were only two places for him to go: either to the frontier, or to stay in the capital. He wouldn't be sent to other places to toss around.

Everywhere had a sphere of influence, everywhere had a speaker, and Wang Yan was unwelcome wherever he went. Especially in the locality, Wang Yan had many means, could fight himself, had a hard life, and was daring, and the time for information traffic with the center was enough for Wang Yan to do many things. It was possible that Wang Yan had killed rivers of blood in the locality, and the ministers in the court had been exterminated, before the center received the news.

By the time the center reacted and made a decision, and sent the information to Wang Yan's territory, everything would be over...

People of insight wouldn't want to send Wang Yan to govern their hometown. Wang Yan was already a sixth-rank official, and the official position sent to the locality would definitely be upgraded; even if the position wasn't upgraded, the power and responsibility would be heavy. According to Wang Yan's habit of grabbing power, he would be the master when he arrived at the locality, and the official leading him would be unlucky for eight lifetimes, probably being sidelined in a few days.

Everyone knew whether their own buttocks were clean, and everyone knew clearly how many could withstand investigation.

Wang Yan's famous saying of "earning money from rich people" had already been released; no matter where he went, it was a disaster for large families. Putting him in remote areas like Yunnan and Guizhou, that would depend on whether Jiajing was willing.

Obviously, Wang Yan was the successor Jiajing raised to replace Yan Song, released to fight against everyone; how could he be put in a remote place? Especially since Wang Yan himself had great merit; people were not blind, and the changes in the capital were visible to the naked eye.

Under such circumstances, it was not easy to send Wang Yan to a poor and remote place; then how could others feel at ease doing things?

Although everyone was scraping their own, there was a consensus that this country still needed people to do things. In every unit, there were those who ate for free, but there had to be those who did practical things and solved problems.

Unless Wang Yan went to a remote place to be the number one, but this was obviously impossible. One had to consider Wang Yan's age and consider his future promotion space. Wang Yan was already a sixth-rank official at twenty-three; if he were sent out to be a prefect, and his three-year term expired, what would happen then? A frontier official under thirty?

How many people would suffer by then...

Outside Yuxi Palace, boxes of things were lifted by eunuchs, waiting in line at the entrance, with people lifting one box out and others lifting one box in.

Inside Yuxi Palace, Wang Yan held the list and said: "Coral green tree, born from Zhou A. Your Majesty, this is a red coral collected by the Annam people from the South China Sea, ten feet square, fifteen feet high, beautiful in color, and even medicinal... converted to 3,000 taels of silver."

Things were sent in one by one, Wang Yan introduced them one by one, Jiajing looked at them one by one, and if he liked them, he would keep them on the spot for appreciation, and the others would all be sent to the palace's treasure house.

From the morning after eating, he watched until noon, and finally watched all the treasures sent.

Wang Yan also made a summary: "Your Majesty, counting these treasures, as well as silver and gold, Hu Zongxian contributed things worth 240,000 taels of silver this time. If these treasures were sold, they should be able to sell for quite a bit more, with an actual value of nearly 300,000 taels."

Seeing Jiajing nod with satisfaction, Lü Fang sighed: "I really didn't expect that in just two years, Hu Zongxian would reach this point."

"If Minister Hu didn't have this ability, wouldn't it be sorry for Your Majesty's deep love for him?" Wang Yan smiled and took the conversation, "Minister Hu has merit, General Qi also has much hard work, and the soldiers fighting outside are also using their lives to do things, so there is today's achievement."

"Were the soldiers' pensions given enough?" Jiajing rarely asked a human question.

Lü Fang replied: "Replying to Master, they were given enough; it's relying on the soldiers using their lives, so the pensions were given enough, and the pay was also given enough."

"Hu Zongxian's work is still reliable."

Jiajing nodded with satisfaction.

The palace's finances had been much better in the past two years. Cement and glass earned a million taels of silver every year, and Hu Zongxian's maritime trade also sent up things worth more than 100,000 taels of silver, many rare treasures. There was also Wang Yan's side; the cleaning fees collected in Daxing were more than a million taels of silver a year, and half was sent to the palace. Summing it all up, there were two million taels a year.

This number was already the silver Jiajing had worked hard to get from all aspects in a year before, and he had to listen to the various complaints of the Cabinet, listen to various pure officials asking him to spend less, and occasionally had to suffer anger.

This number was not fixed, but grew every year. After all, Hu Zongxian's armed smuggling group was getting bigger and bigger, and the Daxing governed by Wang Yan was getting better and better, and the taxes collected were getting more and more, so naturally, the silver contributed was getting more and more.

At the same time, on the other hand, Jiajing didn't go soft at all when taking silver from the national treasury; he should take it, he had to take it. He couldn't not give him silver to spend just because he had other silver; that was wrong.

So in the past two years, Jiajing could spend four million taels of silver every year, which was truly beautiful. Both inside and outside the palace were construction sites, and Jiajing planned quite a few new projects.

Wang Yan also actively made suggestions, building sculptures outside the Golden Water Bridge to sing praises, all of which were palace expenses, spending money to hire people to work.

This was also the place where Wang Yan was relatively gratified. Jiajing, this Emperor, had recognition, was not stingy, and was willing to spend silver for the commoners.

The result, of course, did not fail the silver Jiajing spent. In the past two years, the lives of the commoners in the entire Shuntian Prefecture were not bad, and the tax revenue was quite sufficient. It was just that because other places didn't collect cleaning fees, and there was no re-clearing of fields and checking of households, the return of wealth could not be reflected; only in Daxing could changes be seen through comprehensive data.

There was another relatively important reason, which was that the money shop was transformed into the Great Ming Royal Bank, merging the Treasure Note Bureau and coin casting into it. The printing and issuance of banknotes were no longer managed by the Ministry of Revenue as a superior, but became an institution directly managed by the Emperor, parallel to the Ministry of Revenue.

The framework of this institution was built by Wang Yan, and the personnel were trained by Wang Yan. At present, how many treasure notes to print is decided by Wang Yan. So the money given to Jiajing was all printed by him directly for Jiajing to spend, which was very convenient...

As long as Jiajing didn't forget his original intention and continued to scatter money, let money circulate, and didn't have people who didn't understand pretending to understand and pointing fingers, this account could be balanced with development. It could be said that Jiajing wanted to spend as much as he wanted.

After all, with the size of Great Ming today, the annual revenue was more than 10 million taels of silver, so calculating with the simplest and stupidest method, he could print more than 10 million taels of silver to spend. Because the silver that couldn't be collected was several times the more than 10 million taels collected. As long as the commoners recognized the new treasure notes, it wouldn't even cause any waves in the huge volume.

However, Wang Yan was still very cautious about printing money, and all of them were printed stably according to the various data summarized. Because for a huge empire like Great Ming, whatever is done must not be vigorous, but stable.

It seems that although Wang Yan didn't have a day of peace in the capital, he didn't get out of Shuntian Prefecture, and for the whole Great Ming, it was still of no use.

Everyone knew that commercial taxes should be increased, which was good for this empire, but no one was willing to take out more money from their own pockets. They still had to look painful, as if they had made a huge effort for this empire, and were worried about the country and the people all day long.

Regardless, Jiajing spent happily for two years. He had been on the throne for forty years, and he hadn't been this happy in the past two years...

"How many ships does the fleet have now? And how many daring soldiers are there?" Jiajing asked about the specific situation.

Lü Fang replied: "Replying to Master, the fleet has four large ships of 1,500 piculs, eight ships of 1,000 piculs, thirty-six ships below 1,000 piculs and above 500 piculs, with 1,500 daring soldiers, and another thousand or so other boatmen and sailors. There are twenty cannons, more than 500 fire guns, more than 1,000 sets of rattan armor, paper armor, and leather armor, and the rest of the bows and crossbows are countless."

"It's rare to develop to this point in just two years." Jiajing nodded with satisfaction, saying, "Hu Zongxian is doing well."

He looked at Wang Yan, who was holding the tribute list on the side, "You also put in effort. I know that being able to grow to this point so quickly must have been inseparable from you giving ideas on weekdays."

This sounded like praise, but if you think about it carefully, it's not so good. Because what this said was that Hu Zongxian didn't have such ability, didn't have such courage, and it was all Wang Yan inciting him. Saying Wang Yan was a daring person...

Wang Yan cupped his hands: "Your Majesty, I definitely have merit, but if we really talk about it, I actually didn't give many ideas. The things I said most to Minister Hu were only two points: first, the soldiers' military pay, pensions, and treatment; second, the goods purchased from Nanyang, especially the goods.

What I mainly considered was the lives of our Great Ming commoners. Doing maritime trade, one is to strengthen the navy to control the southeast and suppress the large families in the southeast; the second is to plunder overseas wealth to subsidize our Great Ming commoners.

For two years, the fleet has continuously transported grain, keeping the grain prices in the entire Shuntian Prefecture stable, and not a single person has starved to death. This is the big thing. I had people organize brewing, making noodles, etc., which can make better use of grain and enrich the varieties. Later, I will have people go south, go to sea with the fleet, and build workshops in Nanyang; this year, we should be able to earn more.

Besides the points just mentioned, there are also supplies at the docks along the way, which is the top priority. Whether the shipping route can be stably controlled in our hands depends on the supplies along the way, on sufficient supplies, and on a stable rear.

The rest is Minister Hu's business; the two generals just need to cooperate with him to do things well."

Qi Jiguang nodded in response, while Yu Dayou felt uncomfortable hearing Hu Zongxian's name.

This is very normal, because when fighting Japanese pirates, Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang beat the Japanese pirates until they were defeated, but because they couldn't break through after besieging for a year, Hu Zongxian thought it was not suitable to continue besieging, so he let the Japanese pirates go, and then chased and killed them. Then this matter was impeached, Hu Zongxian blamed Yu Dayou, and Yu Dayou was almost killed.

Of course, it was not just this one thing, and it was not just Hu Zongxian, but whenever there was a contradiction in the capital and it involved military affairs, Yu Dayou had to be taken out as a raft, rising and falling several times.

How could he not be scared? It was truly tossed miserably. Otherwise, how could Qi Jiguang be so smooth and worldly? Yu Dayou's example was in front, he had to obey, doing everything carefully, which was truly walking on thin ice.

Wang Yan said: "The past is like smoke, old general. Now that Hu Zongxian has come down, wanting to be reinstated is extremely difficult; being able to save his life is already not bad. If I hadn't found such a job for him, I guess he would have gone to the Imperial Prison again, and maybe committed suicide.

We can be considered to be helping each other, and there is no saying who is whose backer; it's all for Great Ming, for the Emperor, and for wanting our Great Ming to be prosperous and strong. I don't have the habit of pushing black pots to others.

You also know clearly that this fleet, if we really talk about it, actually belongs to me. If there are any problems or troubles, it's my head that falls. To say something rebellious, I live by the Emperor's favor; whenever the Emperor abandons me and is dissatisfied with me, all these things I've done will be turned over.

But you don't have to worry, at most it's just eating a melon, receiving some reprimands. After all, everyone knows who we are truly working for. Furthermore, the trouble won't find the fleet; I would have died a hundred times because of other crimes first."

Listening to Wang Yan's heart-to-heart words, Yu Dayou couldn't help but let out a long sigh, saying a sincere word: "The Magistrate is also not easy."

"Old general, you are wrong; actually, I am really quite easy."

Wang Yan ate meat, signaled to the two with his wine glass, drank a mouthful of wine, and then continued: "What does the Emperor need? Silver. From the 40th year of Jiajing to now, for three full years, I have sent the Emperor 8 million taels of silver. When that old dog Yan Song was in power, he didn't send as much to the Emperor as I did.

I am also doing practical things steadily. You can go to the East City to see in your spare time, and go outside the East City to see in the Daxing range; that's all what I did. As long as I can still scrape silver, as long as I can still do practical things and solve problems, as long as I don't rebel, then I won't have any problems.

You can do it with confidence; as far as the current situation is concerned, there is nothing my head can't carry. Fight the Japanese pirates well, manage the fleet well, as long as it's not rebellion, I guarantee you won't have any problems.

Suspect me? Let's put it this way, even if you point at Xu Jie's nose and scold him, it's fine. The Cabinet, the Six Supervising Secretaries, the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers, the Censorate—you don't need to fear anyone. Whoever targets you, tell me, and I will definitely not let them have a good time. However they fix you, I will fix them even more."

The two looked at each other, cupped their hands, and said in unison: "Then thank you, Magistrate."

Wang Yan knew that Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang still didn't believe him, but he couldn't blame them.

After all, he had been an official for only four years, and he did have Jiajing's favor, but it didn't stop him from being assassinated more than ten times, even armored soldiers, bows and crossbows, and fire guns were used, and it didn't stop him from being attacked by the whole court, without a single political alliance, and his status was very awkward.

Otherwise, how could Wang Yan be at this age, have reached this position, and still not have properly married, only having a few concubines at home?

I heard Jiajing was looking for a suitable woman among the royal relatives to be Wang Yan's legal wife...

They really didn't understand that Wang Yan's deterrent power didn't come from political alliances or groups united by interests. It was outside the rules, others couldn't kill him, and inside the rules, others couldn't beat him with rules. With these two points, he could target others for strikes and retaliation, and be invincible.

When it came to the critical moment, embezzlement and bribery definitely couldn't kill him. When everyone impeached him, they didn't take these fatal impeachments, not because they couldn't kill him, but because if these key issues were brought to the table, Jiajing would definitely have to give a result. Wang Yan definitely couldn't be killed, so these issues would all be passed over. However, the person who poked this matter out might not necessarily not die.

As for Wang Yan's means of targeting and retaliating against others, it was also very simple. After all, he was in charge of Shuntian Prefecture, so as long as there were people who could cause him trouble, he could definitely find their problems in the capital and its surroundings, directly framing them and expanding the case, and no one could withstand him doing so.

However, Wang Yan didn't explain too much. Saying it didn't count; it still had to be seen in the matter. Later, when these two were fixed, and he was there as a protective umbrella, they would know how powerful he was.

Really speaking, now Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang could be considered to be mixing with Prince Yu. Previously, the two listened to Tan Lun's orders, and Tan Lun was Prince Yu's person, so they could naturally be considered Prince Yu's people...

The three of them ate and drank happily, talking about the war against Japanese pirates for many years, and the border affairs in the north. Wang Yan naturally showed some military genius, and even played a war game with the two, beating them until they were defeated...

After sending off the two who came to pay respects, Wang Yan acted according to the court's arrangements, participated in some activities without Jiajing, and talked and laughed with a group of people who looked down on him.