Chapter 1547: Quelling the Chaos

How many treasure notes the bank prints is something that cannot be hidden, and there is no need to hide it.

After all, the bank is not impenetrable. If there is any big news, those who should know will know, those who shouldn't know won't know, and even if they know, they won't dare to spread it everywhere.

How many new treasure notes have been issued, how many are circulating in the market, and how many have been recovered—these are key financial data of the Great Ming, so of course they cannot be spread at will. Whoever dares to spread them randomly will lose their head.

This was stipulated by the banknote law formulated and issued by Wang Yan with the cooperation of various government offices. Based on Wang Yan's conduct, even if Xu Jie leaked the news, he would dare to chop Xu Jie.

However, this time the additional printing of one million guan of treasure notes certainly won't have much impact, so it doesn't matter if it spreads.

It's just that there are bad people in Shuntian Prefecture spreading news, saying that with a large amount of treasure notes issued, the original treasure notes will be worthless. How much do the common people understand? Even if they have confidence in Wang Yan, they can't stand people going to exchange for copper coins. And after communicating, everyone panicked and started a run on the bank.

It was Wang Yan who stood at the door of the bank himself, explaining to the common people who came to exchange for copper coins or withdraw deposits, issuing notices, and finding people to explain in various banks in Shuntian Prefecture, explaining to the common people the relationship between the additional printing of treasure notes and depreciation, and also accounting for the whereabouts of this one million guan of treasure notes.

Letting the common people understand that the Great Ming is so big, let alone one million guan, even if ten million guan were issued, the treasure notes would not depreciate...

The common people were appeased, but the officials and the wealthy families in the Southeast were not stable.

They knew that this one million guan was to be invested in Fujian and Guangdong, and they also knew that Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, and others had begun to recruit new soldiers, knew that the shipyards in Guangdong and Tianjin had begun to supervise the construction of large ships, knew that Hu Zongxian's fleet was also expanding, and at the same time, weapons were transferred from the capital to Yu Dayou and the others.

Putting all these things together, how could they not understand that the one million guan Wang Yan printed was directly for the military expenses of Yu Dayou and the others. And all these actions were preparations for a major war.

At the same time, taking advantage of the convenience of the army, they could begin to promote the new treasure notes in the Southeast. The original promotion in Daxing was by paying salaries with the Capital Battalion, letting those soldiers spend them, and driving transactions through them.

For example, soldiers get salaries and go to brothels, brothels buy wine, food, and vegetables, brothel girls buy rouge and powder, and those who sell wine, food, vegetables, rouge, and powder have to buy from elsewhere or produce in their own workshops. Anyway, they have to distribute them to the working common people again.

Working common people get wages, naturally they have to buy daily necessities, rice, flour, grain, and oil, and spend money, and then spend money to buy raw materials from the common people, and the common people spend money again, and it circulates.

There is no difficulty in staging such things again in Fujian and Guangdong. After all, as long as the Great Ming regime is stable, there is no problem with treasure notes. Moreover, even the old treasure notes that everyone fears were stable for a long time before they collapsed.

So overall, this is a good thing that kills two birds with one stone.

But it also made the wealthy families in the Southeast very angry, because Wang Yan was clearly targeting them, but while targeting them, he was still thinking about promoting new treasure notes, without fearing the chaos in the Southeast, affecting the whole country, and causing the mountains and rivers to shake...

They are of course not vegetarians, and of course they have tempers.

Moreover, this relates to whether they can earn enough benefits at sea in the future, and for the long-term plan of their descendants, they cannot be helpless and watch Wang Yan build a behemoth fleet that runs rampant at sea.

So the Japanese pirate chaos that was about to subside, and the good situation fought in the Taizhou battle, disintegrated in a very short time. I don't know where so many Japanese pirates came from, and they started large-scale activities again.

The one leading the suppression of the Japanese pirates this time was Tan Lun.

After Hu Zongxian, Tan Lun became the Governor of Fujian, leading Qi Jiguang to resist the Japanese pirates, and fought many beautiful battles. He hadn't left office yet, and just happened to encounter a sudden change in the situation, so he was directly promoted to supervise military affairs in several provinces and continued to fight the Japanese pirates.

Although this matter was caused by Wang Yan, it really had nothing to do with Wang Yan. Except for paying attention to the promotion of treasure notes there, the rest of the things didn't need Wang Yan to worry about.

After all, Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, and others are old generals who have fought for many years, have a global view, and have command ability. Tan Lun, who commands them, is not a waste either. Being able to fight steadily is enough.

Most importantly, Hu Zongxian is issuing orders in Tan Lun's command tent...

Hu Zongxian's ability to fight Japanese pirates is absolutely testable. And from the perspective of position and interest, Hu Zongxian has to play with his life to fight the Japanese pirates.

If he doesn't fight this battle, causing the fleet to collapse, the Southeast to be in chaos, and affecting the overall situation of the country, he will definitely die earlier than Wang Yan.

If this battle is not fought well and the counterattack of the wealthy families in the Southeast is not curbed, but instead makes them even more arrogant, then he will also die.

He only has to win.

Only by winning this battle and beating down this counterattack of the wealthy families in the Southeast can Hu Zongxian possibly be re-employed in the future, continue his political life, and his Hu family can be rich and long-lasting.

However, the situation is not bad for Hu Zongxian, because the one backing him this time is not the Yan faction, but Wang Yan. Wang Yan is helping to solve logistics problems and also helping to withstand various pressures from the capital.

Of course, there is actually no pressure in the capital. It's nothing more than impeachment. Jiajing has gone into seclusion, so even if they impeach to the sky, they have to wait until Jiajing comes out. This is aimed at Wang Yan, an official. If it were an ordinary fifth-rank official, the Cabinet would have handled it directly.

Besides this point, the most excessive thing is being assassinated, which Wang Yan obviously is not afraid of. Anyway, up to now, whoever kills him, their whole family dies. Famous and surnamed powerful and wealthy families, including imperial clans, imperial relatives, meritorious officials, officials, etc., have disappeared in dozens of families in these short three-plus years.

For others, assassinating Wang Yan is a very major gamble. If it succeeds, Jiajing will definitely soften immediately, and nothing will happen. If it doesn't succeed, the whole family dies.

It's a pity that more than ten games have been played so far, and the participants have all been deregistered. Those who died directly are fine; the fear is falling into Wang Yan's hands, working day and night until they die of exhaustion...

Besides these two points, they are helpless against Wang Yan, because Wang Yan acts within the rules. Even if there are some times when he really oversteps his authority, they are all harmless things, just different sequences in some procedures. If you really want to hold on to these things, just like corruption, there is no one in the world who cannot be killed.

Other things cannot be restricted even more, but rather it is Wang Yan who doesn't restrict them. Because the finance and government affairs of Shuntian Prefecture, which Wang Yan is in charge of, are almost independent, or rather directly managed vertically by the Emperor, but specifically managed by Wang Yan. In this regard, there is no way to restrict Wang Yan, and there is no need to ask anyone for the various materials transferred; the Emperor agrees, and that's it. It's all internal affairs of Shuntian Prefecture.

On the other hand, as the de facto top official of Shuntian Prefecture, it is too easy for Wang Yan to disgust the powerful and wealthy. Just say one point: don't do sanitation for them, even pile garbage in the residential areas of these people, or overturn the night-soil cart on this side, and the stench is enough for them to suffer...

But that's all he can do. He, Wang Mou, is selfless, and now the powerful and wealthy are honest in Shuntian Prefecture; no one dares to make trouble. Even at home, they dare not treat their slaves harshly, otherwise, if they report to Wang Yan, Wang Yan will be like a beast smelling blood, opening his bloody mouth to tear a large piece of meat from them...

So, considering various factors, there is of course no problem with this chaos of Japanese pirates.

In fact, there is indeed no problem. With Wang Yan's support, Hu Zongxian's command, Tan Lun's cooperation, and the lives of Yu Dayou and others, this Japanese pirate chaos that suddenly broke out and affected the entire Southeast was quelled in just over half a year...

And in early autumn, when the war situation was very clear, Jiajing, who had been in seclusion for a long time, finally came out.

Wang Yan was the first foreign official Jiajing saw.

"Congratulations to Your Majesty for your cultivation, Your Majesty's immortal blessings are eternal and your life is equal to heaven."

"Alright, you say these words every time, my ears are tired of hearing them." Jiajing waved his hand, "I know the situation in the Southeast. You have worked hard this time."

"Your Majesty, the subject only spent two million taels of silver, scolded Xu Jie and the others every day, urged the transportation of some military weapons, and transferred some grain... It was mainly Hu Zongxian, Tan Lun, Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, and others who worked hard on the front line, and it was those soldiers who gave their lives that led to the quelling of the chaos in the Southeast."

Lu Fang laughed: "Master, Assistant Prefect Wang says the credit belongs to Hu Zongxian, Tan Lun, and others, but why do I hear that he hasn't said less about his own credit?"

Jiajing looked at the smiling Wang Yan: "Asking for credit from me? Why not just let Xu Jie return to his hometown and you become the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet?"

Wang Yan seemed unable to see the situation, and responded directly with the truth without a heart or lungs.

"How can the subject be a Grand Secretary?"

Without waiting for Jiajing to prompt, Wang Yan said, "It's not that the subject doesn't have the ability to be a Grand Secretary; I really don't look down on Xu Jie's few tricks. But the subject has no usable people under him. If I really became the Grand Secretary, I'm afraid the taxes for this year wouldn't be collected, and everyone would find reasons and excuses to make things difficult for me. Not only would they not give silver, but they would also want silver from me, the Grand Secretary."

"Even if the subject can constantly change people, it takes time. In this period of time, it is enough for them to ruin me. These rebellious subjects have very dirty minds."

"Unlike Xu Jie, who has a bunch of fellow students of the Mind School, and a bunch of disciples and grand-disciples, there are too many people shouting for him. Local officials, even if they are not his people, can't create much momentum, and they have to be afraid of being punished by Xu Jie, so they have to honestly listen to orders."

"The subject might not be able to be a Grand Secretary in this life..."

Jiajing glanced at him, seeing Wang Yan's regretful face, and then said: "Then you go and cultivate your own people. In the huge Shuntian Prefecture, there are hundreds of officials, and there are no usable ones? I trust you in using people; otherwise, Shuntian Prefecture could not be governed so prosperously. Looking at two thousand years, Xianyang of Qin is not as good, Chang'an of Tang is not as good, Bianjing of Song is not as good, and Dadu of Yuan is even worse. If there is anything, discuss it more with Lu Fang."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. The subject will definitely form a faction well, and in the future, I will raid Xu Jie's house."

"Only know about raiding houses." Jiajing snorted, "Yan Song's house was raided, are you happy?"

"They are all floating wealth, Your Majesty. The land, houses, manors, and shops were all barely moved; that is the foundation. It is still Your Majesty who remembers old feelings, letting Yan Song die peacefully. Although the subject shouts happily and looks down on Yan Song, my heart is warm. In the future, if the subject is brought down by those rebellious subjects, Your Majesty can also protect me, so I can be a rich man peacefully."

"Master, Assistant Prefect Wang is speaking the truth." Lu Fang thoughtfully gave Jiajing a prompt.

"Then you do things well and don't get brought down by those rebellious subjects."

Jiajing waved his hand and changed the subject, "The chaos in the Southeast is resolved, how should we act next?"

Wang Yan bowed: "Your Majesty, the subject believes we should not force them too much. We still have to let them earn silver from maritime trade; otherwise, their dog-jumping-over-the-wall is not to be underestimated. We should continue to strengthen the fleet and expand the scale of the navy. When the navy becomes a climate and is invincible across the sea borders, we will restore the Shipping Office, expand its authority, specifically collect taxes on maritime trade, and crack down on private maritime trade fleets and merchants."

"At the same time, since treasure notes have been promoted through this battle, naturally we must thoroughly let treasure notes spread throughout the Southeast. Your Majesty, the circulation of treasure notes is no weaker than maritime trade. When treasure notes circulate in the Southeast, and then encircle from both sides with Shuntian Prefecture, in as short as three years, and at most five years, treasure notes will definitely spread throughout the Great Ming. By then, as long as our Great Ming is strong and can continuously earn silver, treasure notes can be continuously printed."

"And to ensure that treasure notes do not collapse, we must return to maritime trade. If our Great Ming can use treasure notes to buy various things from Nanyang countries, then we can make a lot of money, and the common people can live a good life. By then, with a strong army and strong armaments, our Great Ming will exist with the sun and the moon..."

Wang Yan said a lot, mainly expounding on the economic account, driving the army with the economy, and feeding back the economy with the army.

Then Wang Yan's intention was very clear: there must be usable people in the Southeast, and the army must be reformed. However, these are all problems for Jiajing to consider, and Wang Yan only has the part of making suggestions.

But words like reform and changing laws cannot be said randomly. Every dynasty and generation has proven with bloody reality that reform is not so easy to change, and laws are not so easy to change.

After saying this, Wang Yan finally said, "As far as the current situation is concerned, we cannot force the Southeast too much, but we cannot ignore it either; otherwise, this battle was fought in vain, so many soldiers died in vain, and the silver was spent in vain. The subject believes that we should let Xu Jie push people to the Southeast to collect taxes."

"No matter what, the taxes collected this year should be at least 30% more than in previous years, and we cannot increase taxes on the common people; it should all be paid by the wealthy families in the Southeast. If they don't pay, the subject believes we should let the Eastern Depot and Embroidered Uniform Guard cooperate with Yu Dayou and the others to raid their houses and kill a batch, and that will be fine."

Jiajing hummed, neither saying he agreed nor saying he disagreed.

He just strolled to the bright window and looked at the three thousand miles of fire clouds outside...

?? Daily thanks to the good brothers who reward, vote for monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and silently read the book for their strong support! ===== CHAPTER 1548 =====